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HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 



HOSPITABLE ENGLAND 
IN THE SEVENTIES 

The Diary of a Young American 
1875-1876 

BY 

RICHARD HENRY DANA 

»♦ 

With Illustrations 




BOSTON AND- NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
1921 



\fi 






COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY RICHARD H. DANA 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



o.o * 



§>C!,A608422 

FEB 19 m\ 



TO 

MY MANY FRIENDS 

IN ENGLAND 



CONTENTS 

I. First Days in London 1 

II. Second Week in London 28 

III. The Last of my First London Season 48 

IV. Althorp House: Earl Spencer's via Warwick 

and Birmingham 63 

V. Lord Young's via York and Edinburgh 82 

VI. Rossie Priory: Lord Kinnaird's 88 

VII. Inverary Castle: The Duke of Argyll's 

(Princess Louise) via the Trossachs 100 

VIII. Lord Coleridge's 121 

IX. Lord Tenterden's 135 

X. Hursley Park: Sir William Heathcote's and 

General Review 146 

XL Paris Salons, and English Embassy 153 

XII. French Assembly and Last Days in Paris 185 

XIII. Athens by way of the Mediterranean — 

British Ambassador — The Royal Ball and 
Scaling the Acropolis 199 

XIV. Egypt — The English Embassy — General-in- 

Chief — Egyptian Injustice 222 



viii CONTENTS 

XV. Rome (via Naples) — American and English 

Ambassadors 237 

XVI. England again via Turin and Paris 247 

XVII. Oxford and Cambridge 257 

XVIII. First of London revisited 294 

XIX. Last of London revisited 326 

Epilogue 362 

Index 369 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Young American Photogravure frontispiece 

Lord Frederick Cavendish 12 

From an engraving 

Lord Tenterden . 18 

Sir William Vernon Harcourt 30 

Earl Russell (formerly Lord John Russell) 34 

From a drawing by G. F. Watts 

Countess Russell 38 

Althorp House: Earl Spencer's 70 

From a sketch by the author 

Edinburgh 82 

From a sketch by the author 

Rossie Priory: Lord Kinnaird's 88 

Inverary Castle, Seat of the Duke of Argyll 102 

From an old engraving 

Princess Louise 106 

The Duke of Argyll 110 

From an engraving 

The Armory, or Front Hall, Inverary Castle 120 

Lord Coleridge at 56 124 

From a crayon by Lady Coleridge, 1878. Reproduced from a 
photogravure in Ernest Hartley Coleridge's Life and Corre- 
spondence of John Duke Coleridge (New York: D. Appleton 
& Co.) 

Sir John Taylor Coleridge 132 

From a painting by Mrs. Carpenter in the Hall of Eton College. 
Reproduced from Life and Correspondence of John Duke 
Coleridge 



x ILLUSTRATIONS 

Castle of Rocks, Lynton 136 

Keble's Church and Vicarage at Hursley 148 

Queen Olga of Greece and Princess Marie 216 

Dean Stanley 316 

Rt.-Hon. Sir Robert Phillimore 326 
From a painting 

Rt.-Hon. William E. Gladstone 340 



HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 



NOTE 

If this account of friendly kindness by eminent per- 
sons in Great Britain to a young man from America 
should help to bring those two countries into closer 
union and confidence, and at the same time entertain 
the reader, this book will have accomplished the pur- 
poses for which it is published. 



HOSPITABLE ENGLAND 
IN THE SEVENTIES 

• 

CHAPTER I 
FIRST DAYS IN LONDON 

London, Wednesday, July 14, 1875 
Rain! 

Arranged letters of introduction and soon became as 
familiar with the immediate vicinity as if I had been 
here for weeks. 

Thursday, July 15 

Rain again. A quick response to my letters began this 

afternoon. 

As I found it would take me ten hours or more to 
deliver all my letters of introduction, I had given the 
more distant ones to be carried by messenger with my 
calling cards and had delivered only the nearer ones 
personally. It is customary in England to leave a letter 
of introduction and one's card with an address on it, 
without asking to see the person to whom one is intro- 
duced. This allows him to read the letter more at leisure 
and arrange for some future meeting, and, especially in 
the crowded life of London, works far better and more 
satisfactorily than trying to see strangers at the first 
call. 

Lodgings I had secured at Mrs. Brooks's, 115 Jermyn 
Street, where my parents had been before. When I got 
back to my room late in the afternoon, I found two 



2 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

notes awaiting me: one from Sir Robert Phillimore, my 
father's friend, and the other from Robert Ferguson, 
Esq., M.P., Professor Longfellow's, both for engage- 
ments the next day, and on that next day, by the morn- 
ing's post, came another invitation from Sir John Kenna- 
way, Bart., for that same evening. It was quite thrilling 
to get three such rapid responses to the letters I had 
only delivered in the late forenoon and early afternoon. 

I had come abroad from Boston in July, 1875, after 
graduation at Harvard and at the end of my first year 
in the Law School, for a fifteen-months' trip, with a 
very little baggage containing a few old clothes and 
some twenty or more letters of introduction, nearly all 
from my father. Three were from Henry W. Longfellow 
and one from James Russell Lowell. All these were to 
Englishmen, excepting two of Longfellow's to members 
of the Academy in Paris and two from my father to 
other distinguished Frenchmen. 

Purchases and rush orders for articles all the way 
from toothbrush at Prout's, whose name had so often 
been in my mouth, to silk hat in St. James's Street, and 
dress suit at Boutroy's, Sackville Street, had occupied 
much of the few previous days; but the invitations, 
coming so surprisingly soon, got ahead of my race for 
clothing, and at first I had to wear some of my old 
things. 

(I wrote journal letters almost daily to my father. 
These he preserved for me and they form the basis for 
the above entries and all that follow.) 

Before delivering my letters I called at the bank, and 
out came one of the directors, the Honorable Arthur 
Kinnaird, brother of the present Lord Kinnaird and his 
heir presumptive. He introduced himself as one of my 
father's friends and admirers. He was very obliging and 



FIRST ACQUAINTANCES 3 

offered to do much for me — all the more nice as I had 
no letter of introduction to him. He simply saw my 
name on the letter of credit. He is a banker, tall and 
dark, with a keen eye and pleasant, business-like, 
friendly smile. This continuous rain would be dismal 
indeed for one who had less to do than I or who was less 
delighted with being in dear old England. 

Friday, July 16 
More rain ! 

"But when we crossed the Lombard Plain 
Remember what a plague of rain." 

Lunched with Mr. Robert Ferguson at the dignified 
and handsome Devonshire Club, St. James's Street. 
He made arrangements to take me to the House of 
Commons on Tuesday, the 20th. He is a member of 
Parliament from Carlisle. We had a most excellent 
lunch and interesting conversation. He is a diffident 
man, rarely makes a speech in Parliament, I was told; 
stutters a good deal, and fills gaps in his conversation 
with "hems" and "hums" uttered through closed lips. 
He is extremely well informed, has written a book on 
"Surnames as a Science," and has led in many good 
works and municipal improvements in his city, and yet 
is modest and friendly withal. He is said to be a useful 
member on committees and is valued for his sound 
judgment. He is a moderate Liberal and supporter of 
Gladstone.v He talked of his visit in Cambridge, U.S.A., 
in the sixties and of meeting my sister Henrietta as a 
child and all the Longfellow family. 

In the afternoon went to the Royal Art Exhibition. 
I was not a little disappointed in it. 

At eight o'clock dined with the Right Honorable 
Sir Robert Phillimore and his two daughters. He is a 



4 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

judge of the High Court of Admiralty and author of a 
voluminous and thorough work on international law, 
"Memoirs of George Lord Lyttelton," "Thoughts on 
the Law of Divorce," etc. He was a member of Parlia- 
ment for several years and held many important posi- 
tions, such as that of the Chancellor of the Diocese of 
Oxford. He is sixty-five years of age, with a square face, 
pleasing mouth, and gray hair. Lady Phillimore was 
out of town. Sir Robert was most kind and cordial. 
The talk ran on art, London life, Boston, and my father, 
for whom and whose writings, both on law and travel, 
he expressed admiration. 

One of his daughters was doing bookbinding, much 
in vogue in London society. She remarked that, as it 
rained on St. Swithun's day, the 15th, it would be a wet 
season, according to an old superstition. About ten 
o'clock they took me to a little party at Lady Frederick 
Cavendish's on Carlton House Terrace at her request. 
Lord Frederick Cavendish is a younger son of the pres- 
ent Duke of Devonshire and brother of Lord Hartington. 
(Lord Frederick was afterwards assassinated at Phoenix 
Park in 1882.) I had a letter to him from my father, 
who had entertained him and Lord Hartington in the 
United States in the sixties. 

Lord Frederick is short and frail, modest and unas- 
suming. He says important and interesting things in 
such a quiet way. At first sight he would not impress 
one as having the ability he undoubtedly possesses. He 
has sandy hair and blue eyes, or blue-gray eyes. He has 
no children. 

The great Gladstone was expected, but did not come. 
Among the guests — about ten or more — were Lord 
Colin Campbell, youngest son of the Duke of Argyll, 
two sisters of Lady Frederick, and the Honorable 



AT SIR ROBERT PHILLIMORE'S 5 

Alfred Lyttelton, Lady Frederick's brother, son of Lord 
Lyttelton. (If this was Alfred, as I think it was, and 
not one of his elder brothers, it was he who in 1885 mar- 
ried the charming Laura Tennant, so highly praised by 
Mrs. Humphry Ward in her "Recollections," and who 
has won high honors at the Bar and in Parliament.) 

Colin told me that his father, the Duke of Argyll, 
was off yachting, which of course I was sorry to learn 
as I had a letter to him also. 

An American who goes out a good deal in London 
informed me that it was de rigueur to wear patent 
leather shoes and gold shirt studs. I had not been in 
the habit of wearing patent leathers at home. My new 
orders for shoes and clothing had not been filled, so I 
went this evening in my plain but well-blacked shoes 
and old dress suit. I found when I got there that Colin 
Campbell and Lord Frederick Cavendish both had the 
same footwear and both wore plain mother-of-pearl 
shirt studs like mine. Tea was served about 10.30. Sir 
Robert insisted upon driving me home, which was very 
kind of him, though, to be sure, it was not far out of his 
way. 

I also had, as already stated, an invitation to dine 
with Sir John Kennaway for this same evening, but had 
to decline with regret quite sincere, as the Kennaways 
are noted for their dinners and company. 

Saturday, July 17 

Went to the National Gallery in the afternoon and 
dined at Mrs. Robert Mackintosh's at seven o'clock in 
the evening. She was Miss Mary Appleton, of Boston, 
and sister of the late Mrs. Henry W. Longfellow. There 
were present Mrs. Mackintosh, her brother "Uncle 
Tom" Appleton, who was very kind to me and was as 



6 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

usual remarkably bright, witty, and entertaining; also 
Miss Eva Mackintosh and one or two friends. I did not 
think they half appreciated Tom Appleton, the "prince 
of prattlers." He showed me a number of his paintings 
made on the Upper Nile, in Palestine, and in Lower 
Egypt. 

In the morning went over Lincoln's Inn and all the 
courts with Mr. Rawlins, a young barrister and friend 
of Tom Hughes, author of "Tom Brown at Rugby," to 
whom Professor James Russell Lowell had given me a 
letter. I could not have had a better cicerone. Here 
was where Pendennis and Warrington did almost every- 
thing else but study for the law, and in how many other 
books do we not read of Lincoln's Inn or Lincoln's Inn 
Fields! 

Sunday, July 18 

Expected from Sir Robert Phillimore a card of admis- 
sion to the Temple, but as it did not come stayed at 
home all the morning. 

Lunched at Spencer House, where were Lord and 
Lady Spencer, Lord Charles Bruce, who was very jolly 
and kind to me, and Lady Spencer's sister, Lady Clif- 
den, with two of her children. Earl Spencer is tall, with 
slightly freckled face, sandy reddish hair, and a very 
long and full beard of the same color — so large as to 
remind me of the limerick: 

"There was an old man with a beard, 
Who said, 'It is just as I feared! — 

Two owls and a hen, 

Four larks and a wren, 
Have all built their nests in my beard."' 

He has kind, keen, blue eyes in marked contrast with 
the color of his skin and hair. He is not "old," however, 



EARL AND LADY SPENCER 7 

being just forty, and is still reported to be one of the 
best horsemen at fox-hunting in England. I saw him in 
the park riding. He stoops a good deal when in the 
saddle, and rides with what we should think very short 
stirrups and knees a good deal bent. He was Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland from 1868 to 1874, and during 
the lunch he and Lady Spencer told us something of 
their Irish experiences, of horrible shootings by the 
Land Leaguers from behind fences, their having to lead 
their conventional society life notwithstanding their 
fears of assassination, of the warm-hearted qualities of 
the Irish and the mixture in their lives of gayety and 
gravity. (Later he was again Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 
land from 1882 to 1885, Lord Lieutenant of the Council 
and First Lord of the Admiralty under Gladstone, 1892 
to 1895, and a Home Ruler. In 1893 in the Home Rule 
debate in the House of Lords, I was present and heard 
Lord Londonderry make an uncalled-for and very nasty 
statement that Spencer, who is one of the most honor- 
able and high-minded of men, supported Home Rule 
solely for the purpose of getting the salary of a cabinet 
officer. Spencer did not deign to reply.) 

Lady Spencer is indeed handsome, as she is reputed 
to be, and, in fact, is the most beautiful woman I have 
yet seen in England. She is the same age as her hus- 
band and still has a graceful though not slender figure 
(as judged from more modern ideas), and has a per- 
fectly bewitching smile, and when her face is at rest, a 
turn of the lips that foreruns another smile. Her sister, 
Lady Clif den, is also unusually handsome, is more calm 
and statuesque, is a brunette, with black eyes, while 
Lady Spencer has brown hair and blue eyes. Stately 
Lady Spencer was the third daughter of Frederick 
Charles William Seymour, Esquire, and granddaughter 



8 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

of the first Marquis of Bristol. She and her two sisters 
were said to be the handsomest young women of their 
time in England. 

She was surprised that I had been in London only- 
five days and said she would have taken me for an 
Englishman from my voice, and I took it that she 
meant to be complimentary. I found that many of the 
English whom I have met so far talk, in the main, like 
Boston and Cambridge friends except for the hesitation 
which some men have. 

My father told me, in meeting distinguished English- 
men, to treat them in the same way that I would treat 
Mr. Lowell, Mr. Longfellow, Dr. Holmes, Agassiz, and 
others, with the courtesy due from a younger man to an 
elder, to use titles as little as possible, and to be per- 
fectly natural and at my ease and neither forthput- 
ting nor, on the other hand, to take the lower seat, be- 
cause in English society the Bible parable will not hold. 
They are not likely to say, "Friend, go up higher." 
I find this advice works perfectly and all is natural and 
easy, delightful and intimate. 

Spencer House is beautifully situated on St. James's 
Place, looking out on Green Park and opposite Bridge- 
water House, the Earl of Ellesmere's. 

Of course there was the lofty " Jeames" in full togs at 
the door and a dignified footman in handsome livery 
between the front door and the reception-room, and 
others to wait on table. What struck me most in the 
details was the absence of napkins at lunch, though it 
was what we should call a heavy lunch, with soup, 
chicken and game, vegetables, fruit, wines, etc. It 
seemed strange that they should be so slow in changing 
their old customs, for, of course, a napkin is as necessary 
at a heavy lunch of this sort as at a dinner. When Mr. 



TABLE CUSTOMS 9 

Mackintosh, son of Sir James Mackintosh, who mar- 
ried Miss Mary Appleton, the same Mrs. Mackintosh 
with whom I dined a few days ago, came to Boston, 
at his first lunch at Mr. Nathan Appleton's, his father- 
in-law, it was said that he threw his napkin on the 
floor. Appleton, supposing there was a defect in the nap- 
kin, had another one brought. This he threw on the 
floor also, and upon being asked if there was anything 
the matter with his napkin, said, "We never use napkins 
at lunch in England." 

Another difference was this. It has always been a 
question whether it is proper to take a chicken bone, 
for example, in one's hand. In America we were gen- 
erally taught not to do so, but I find these nice ladies 
do, in a delicate and fine manner, after the larger part 
of the meat had been cut off — but not with the little 
finger curled as I have seen some would-be fastidious 
women do while holding a teacup or a bit of toast. I 
do not see why the English custom is not right. The 
meat next to the bone is the sweetest and the custom 
seems rational, though I should think it would still fur- 
ther necessitate the use of napkins. (On later visits in 
England I found napkins in use at lunch. At a lunch 
in April, 1913, with the Duke of Argyll and Princess 
Louise, at Kensington Palace, the napkins were very 
large ones, larger than we usually have at dinners.) 

Another small matter that differed from our Ameri- 
can custom was the place of the clean knives and forks 
at the plates. We usually place the fork at the left and 
the knife at right angles to it at the top. Here they put 
the knife on the right side of the plate, parallel to the 
fork (as we have since come to do in the "States"), and 
when I inadvertently changed it to the American way, 
out of habit, one of the waiters immediately took the 



10 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

knife and put it back. He was not going to tolerate 
any such outlandish custom in a great English house. 

There was much instructive and entertaining talk 
about politics, some questions about America's recovery 
after the war, President Grant and his cabinet, the 
condition of the negroes in the Southern States, and 
the feeling between England and America, but mostly 
was it about persons and affairs English. Spencer had 
been to the United States in the early days of the Civil 
War and been entertained by my father. He said the 
Duke of Argyll, Sir George Lewis, and Lord Stanley, for 
example, sided with the North, but most of the ruling 
class were on the side of the South. Disraeli was scru- 
pulously neutral, while Lord John Russell said "the 
North was striving for empire and the South for inde- 
pendence." Lord Coleridge was at first for the South 
and later changed for the North, while Gladstone, much 
as he opposed slavery, was rather Southern in his feel- 
ings. The women seem well informed and interested in 
public matters in comparison to the American women, 
which is quite natural, as their husbands, brothers, 
fathers, and sons are many of them members and usually 
leading members of the House of Commons, if not of 
the House of Lords. Speaking of Disraeli they call him 
"Dizzy." 

Spencer unfortunately has no son. Though he has 
been married since 1848 his heir is his half brother. 
Spencer could hardly be more friendly and made several 
plans to help me see people and places, and asked me to 
come again soon and talked of inviting me to his coun- 
try seat after Parliament adjourns. 

Lunch over, I went to Westminster Abbey. I was a 
little late for the service and had to stand at a distance. 
Dean Stanley preached, but from my remote position 



LORD AND LADY FREDERICK CAVENDISH 11 

I could not hear all he said. The music and the associa- 
tions with the place brought tears to my eyes time and 
time again. I did not stay to look at the abbey on 
account of the crowd. 

Took afternoon tea with Mr. Henry Tuke Parker, 
formerly of Boston, and his wife and daughter and went 
with them to evening church. On Sunday he, like some 
other people in England (very much as we do at home), 
had dinner in the middle of the day and only an evening 
tea or supper so that the servants might go out early. 
Good singing and an earnest sermon. At supper were 
also the clergyman and young Dr. Henry P. Quincy, of 
Boston (who afterwards married in 1877 Miss Mary 
Adams, daughter of Charles Francis Adams, our former 
Minister to England). 

Monday, July 19 • 

Called on Lord Frederick Cavendish at four o'clock 
in the afternoon according to previous arrangement, and 
walked with him from his house on Carlton House Ter- 
race to the Parliament buildings . Speaking of the beauty 
among English women, Lady Frederick, while not as 
beautiful as Lady Spencer, has fine dark eyes, brilliant 
coloring, dark hair, and graceful, dignified, and rather 
slender figure, and regular features lighting up with a 
friendly smile. She is the second daughter of Lord 
Lyttelton and maid of honor to the Queen. Lord 
Frederick was Lord of the Treasury during Gladstone's 
last administration, was previously his secretary, and 
now sits on the Opposition bench. He secured me a seat 
in what is called the Speaker's Gallery. He gave me 
the orders of the day and a copy of the Agricultural Hold- 
ings Bill, with all the proposed amendments. I heard a 
somewhat interesting but not great debate. There were 



12 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

some rather stupid and long-spun arguments as to the 
value of certain kinds of fertilizer, etc. It seemed to me 
that it would have been far better to have got this at 
committee hearings from experts than to have the time 
taken up in debate by the private views, on such mat- 
ters, of the individual members who have had no scien- 
tific or chemical training, as is almost invariably the 
case with educated Englishmen of the upper or reign- 
ing class. 

The "slaughter of the innocents," or throwing down 
the less important bills, was to have taken place, but 
" Dizzy" had not made up his mind what ones to save 
and what ones to kill. The Opposition think it is full 
time to know. In reply to this Disraeli made an amus- 
ing speech in which he entertained the House and said 
nothing. 

Whalley, the violent anti-Catholic member, soon got 
up with his anti-Jesuit bill, and before long was called 
to order in what I was told was the usual way in his 
case. He is the successor of Mr. Spooner, who, during 
my father's visit to England in 1856, made just such at- 
tacks. Whalley managed to get in quite a little speech, 
in which he accused the Government of shutting its 
eyes to the awful danger from the encroachments of the 
papal party in England. Disraeli answered this by say- 
ing that the Government was aware of the great dangers 
that exist from this source, but the most dangerous 
persons of all, whom he suspects may be secret emissa- 
ries from Rome, are those who, under the pretense of 
violent Protestantism, make such exaggerated and ob- 
viously erroneous statements as to leave an impression 
on the public mind that after all there is no danger 
whatsoever. This brought about a laugh at Whalley 's 
expense and some applause, which, by the custom of 




&« ^v^et^'C 



LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISH 

1866 



VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 13 

the House of Commons, consists largely in calling out, 
"Hear, hear." 

Lord Frederick Cavendish, Liberal, and Sir John 
Kennaway, Tory, sat with me from time to time, told 
me who the different people were, and explained the 
proceedings. I heard questions put to the Ministry and 
answered. One was as to the necessity of passports on 
the Continent; which to me was quite a practical mat- 
ter as I was going there soon. The Ministry declared 
that passports were not necessary, but might be useful 
for purposes of identification. The answers, as in this 
case, are sometimes made by the parliamentary under- 
secretaries. Disraeli is particularly fond of bringing his 
young proteges forward. 

A motion was made to adjourn followed by a general 
discussion. We allow no debate on motion to adjourn, 
while in the English Parliament it is customary to 
tolerate, until objection is made, the most general dis- 
cussion covering a very broad field on all sorts of mat- 
ters. 

Left the House at six-fifteen and went to dine with 
Rawlins at the Savile Club, of which I am made an 
honorary member. This is one of the smaller clubs com- 
posed of active young barristers, doctors, etc., much less 
formal and less expensive than the larger clubs. (This is 
mentioned in Sir Harry Johnston's " Gay Dombeys " as 
still existing in 1919.) They had a common dinner at a 
long table (very much as at the Century Club in New 
York) and it was the custom there (as in the Century) for 
members or guests to speak to one another without 
introduction. The club is select, yet they are sociable 
and the conversation is bright and entertaining. Spir- 
itualism and investigation into manifestations were 
discussed at length. They have a committee looking 



14 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

into these matters called the "Committee on Psychic 
Research," and which uses the aid of noted prestidigita- 
tors. Had a long talk with the chairman of this com- 
mittee, who thought that most, if not all, of the phe- 
nomena they have investigated either showed fraud, as 
was usually the case, or were based on mere coinci- 
dences, or could be explained on natural grounds, and 
that all hearsay evidence was apt to be exaggerated 
from the prevalent love of the marvelous, and on in- 
vestigation at original sources the facts were almost 
always found to be much less remarkable than the cur- 
rent account of them. 

Rawlins has a younger brother at Eton and a cousin 
at Cambridge. He gave me a letter to the former and 
also to a master at Eton, and advised me to go there on 
Thursday, which is the great Eton day. 

At nine-thirty I went back to the House of Commons 
and stayed on till it was about to adjourn. 

As I sat through the debates I heard, so softly as to 
be a vibration rather than a sound, the Westminster 
chimes warning us of the passing quarter hours, and 
when I went outside I heard above me from the belfry, 
more clearly, the four peals for the quarters and the 
solemn, low boom of one for the hour. 

I am naturally deeply interested in the effect of hav- 
ing the members of the cabinet in the House, taking 
part in debate, subject to question, and being responsi- 
ble for the course of legislation. While it leads to pub- 
licity, it also leads to a great deal of tilting and what 
seems to be waste of time; but, on the other hand, it 
prevents too hasty legislation and keeps the Govern- 
ment on its good behavior. The Opposition does not 
hesitate openly to prevent or delay the passage of con- 
fessedly good bills merely to injure the work of the party 



DISRAELI AND GLADSTONE 15 

in power. The only check to this abuse is, I am told, 
public opinion. 

There is no regular method of stopping indefinite de- 
bate prolonged forever. Of course the English "pre- 
vious question" is not like ours. Ours is used for the 
purpose of bringing the issue to a vote without further 
debate; while in England it merely postpones considera- 
tion for the day and until the subject may be again in- 
troduced; or, in other words, the object of the motion in 
America is to hasten final action, and in English prac- 
tice to get rid of a subject for the time being. 

This evening I saw the House go into Committee of 
the Whole. The Speaker left his chair, the chairman of 
the committee took his place, and the huge mace was 
put under the table with great formality. 1 

Without any prompting from my friends, I could 
easily recognize some of the leading members from the 
pictures in "Punch" — Disraeli, Gladstone, the Mar- 
quis of Hartington, Sir William Vernon Harcourt, etc. 
Disraeli, who is now Prime Minister, wore a fancy waist- 
coat, large rings, a striking fob or elaborate watch- 
chain of some kind, and had the black curls on his fore- 
head and the sphinx-like expression in his face for which 
he is so noted. Occasional smiles passed over his coun- 
tenance and the expression changed, yet I felt that he 
was never revealing his inner thoughts. Gladstone 
struck one as more sincere. I think his worst enemies 
— for he has some enemies — at least give him credit 
for persuading himself to believe what he says. Many 
of his political opponents think him inconsistent and 
subtle-minded. The critics whom I mention, who are To- 
ries, are few and their criticisms moderate. Generally, 
I found almost unbounded admiration for "the grand 
old man," as he is often called. (In 1893 his inability 



16 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

to have carried out all his Midlothian campaign prom- 
ises, after his bitter attacks on Disraeli, his espousing 
Irish Home Rule, his "vacillating and inconsistent 
policy" in Egypt and the Soudan, resulting in the 
death of General Gordon, and the suspicion that he 
favored disestablishment of the English Church, had 
very much changed matters. I was then present at the 
debates on his Irish Home Rule Bill in the House of 
Lords and listened to many bitter personal attacks 
upon him. These I heard echoed in private conversa- 
tion with Unionists. Very few people I met in 1893, 
outside the Home Rulers, believed in him, and many 
seemed to vie among themselves in denouncing him 
in terms so bitter as to be absurd. For "subtlety" of 
mind in 1875, "sophistry" was substituted in 1893. 
They would n't believe that Gladstone had ordinary 
veracity. It was commonly repeated that a high eccle- 
siastic had said he "would n't trust him with a penny 
round the corner." They accused him of being un- 
balanced through egotism and as acting only from the 
motive of keeping himself in power.) 

(One feature of Gladstone's debates had been es- 
pecially irritating to his opponents. He always assumed 
that he was morally right, or, as President Lowell once 
summed it up, Gladstone had the good fortune which 
followed him through life, that whenever he changed 
his views the Almighty changed his at the same time. 
In "A Modern Symposium," by G. Lowes Dickinson, 
is an account of a conversation between a character, 
evidently intended for Gladstone, ending with an assur- 
ance that what he had just said was in accordance with 
the principles of the Almighty, and a character repre- 
senting Disraeli who replied in substance : I do not pre- 
tend to have that intimate knowledge of the mind of 



THE AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS BILL 17 

the Almighty which my predecessor has just claimed. 
Tennyson says, " Fame is but half disf ame." With Glad- 
stone in 1893 you might well say three quarters. Later, 
after the heat over the Home Rule Bill of 1893 cooled 
off, and still more after his death, the perspective 
changed, and once again his great qualities stood out 
in their rightful proportions.) 

Tuesday, July 20 

Went with Mr. Ferguson to the House of Commons, 
which met early, that is, at two o'clock instead of the 
usual hour of four in the afternoon. The House was in 
Committee of the Whole on the Agricultural Holdings 
Bill. The main feature of this bill was to allow farm 
tenants the value of improvements they may make. 
Then came up the distinctions between substantial 
permanent improvements, such as the erection of new 
buildings or thorough tile draining of wet lands, and 
the using of fertilizers whose benefits might merely 
outlast a lease by a year or so. There was no good de- 
bate and none at all on the general objects of the bill 
itself. I think these were generally agreed to. The dis- 
cussion was again on fertilizers and their relative dura- 
bility. 

As the proceedings were dull and most of the im- 
portant members out of the House, Mr. Ferguson and I 
left and went to the house of a friend of his, a Dr. Jones, 
in Green Street, Park Square, for afternoon tea at five 
o'clock. It was a pleasant and agreeable family gather- 
ing. Two of the daughters sang some duets quite well, 
though they were a little frightened. They made me 
sing some college and negro songs, which were new to 
them and which they seemed to like. 

I had to decline an invitation for this evening to dine 



18 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

with Lord Selborne, formerly Sir Roundell Palmer and 
chief counsel for Great Britain in the Alabama Claims 
Arbitration at Geneva, for which service, though he did 
not win his case, he won his new title. I had previously 
accepted an invitation to dine with Lord Tenterden at 
the Garrick Club. Tenterden is the permanent head of 
the Foreign Office, the man who is said to have saved 
the Treaty of Washington by his tact and ability, thus 
securing the arbitration of the Alabama Claims con- 
tained in that treaty, the first great arbitration of the 
kind and which averted possible war between Great 
Britain and the United States. Tenterden is about 
five feet eight, broad-shouldered, very dark, prominent 
eyes, swarthy complexion, has a large beard, and a truly 
winning smile. He has a vast fund of information not 
only in history and diplomacy, but on many unexpected 
matters, which is always at command. 

At the Tenterden dinner we had an Italian, the 
counselor, I believe he was, for Count Sclopis, when a 
member of the Geneva Arbitration Court. Among the 
guests was a rich American, a recent graduate of 
Yale College, with a two-hundred-ton yacht, and a few 
others, but from the English habit of not introducing 
and from Lord Tenterden's being so entertaining up to 
the moment I left him, I did not get the names of them 
all. The American was rather formal and stiff. The 
Englishmen were bright and well-informed, gentlemanly 
and charming, men whom I may never meet again, like 
ships we pass in the night whose lights we see, but whose 
names we do not read. Lord Tenterden asked me to 
visit him in his cottage in the north of Devonshire on 
the seacoast at the end of August, and I accepted. 

The Garrick Club is interesting in itself. They have 
there some celebrated pictures and large portraits, and 




LORD TENTERDEN 



THE GARRICK CLUB 19 

a host of small ones of actors, actresses, and playwrights, 
and old handbills about the walls. I saw there a bust of 
Shakespeare supposed to have been made some thirty- 
years after his death, and which was lately excavated in 
digging in the Inner Temple. It used to stand on one 
side of the proscenium of the theatre with a correspond- 
ing bust of Ben Jonson on the other. This rather seems 
as if those in authority who knew Shakespeare per- 
sonally thought him to be the author of his plays and 
capable of writing them. 

Found a letter from Smalley written at Margate with 
a message from Tom Hughes — "Tom Brown's School 
Days" — that he is unable to write, adding that he 
hopes to be in London again in a week or so and to see 
me. Smalley thought this was too hopeful a view of 
Hughes's health, as he had just had inflammatory rheu- 
matism followed by a sharp attack of hereditary gout. 
Hughes has been in Parliament and is much interested 
in the working classes and Christian sociology. I should 
like so much to see him. (He did not get back to London 
during the season and I never had the good fortune to 
meet him, but treasure this friendly message.) 

Wednesday, July 21 : 

Made several calls, among others on Sir Robert Philli- 
more, Sir John Kennaway, Lord Selborne, Mrs. Mack- 
intosh, Mrs. Parker, Lady Frederick Cavendish, and 
Mrs. Smalley. The Smalleys had invited me to dinner, 
but unfortunately on a day when I had another engage- 
ment. Dined at Sir John Kennaway's. Kennaway is 
a Baronet from Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, and a 
strong Tory. He visited the United States, both South 
and North, just after the Civil War, was entertained by 
my father, and on his return wrote a book called "On 



20 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Sherman's Track," a vivid and true account of what he 
saw and heard. There were present Lady Kennaway; 
her brother, Mr. Arbuthnot, a delightful man; and a 
number of others. Next to me at table sat an English 
lady who was pleasant, smiling, and talked agreeably 
until Sir John told her that I was from America. Sud- 
denly she turned her back on me as much as to say, 
"Is it possible that I have been talking with one from 
that nasty place?" The English use "nasty" for al- 
most everything disagreeable. She actually made up a 
face and ejected some apparently unpleasant remark 
which I did n't quite catch. I was determined, if pos- 
sible, to change her disagreeable impression by being 
really, though not over, polite, and yet sincere, and I 
flatter myself that I had reasonably fair success, for 
later in the evening she spoke to me with something like 
a smile. She is the only lady I have met who has shown 
such unfortunate impressions of "Yankees," though 
there is still no little trace of the feeling that existed 
against the North during the Civil War, and we must 
remember too that some of these people have lost 
heavily in Confederate bonds. 

Opposite me was a sister of Lady Frederick Caven- 
dish, the wife of Dr. Talbot, warden of Keble College, 
Oxford, and we had a little talk across the table, which, 
however, is not a common custom, I am told, in 
England. After the ladies went out, I took part in a 
most engrossing conversation with several members 
of Parliament and eminent barristers, one Mr. West- 
lake, who had corresponded with my father, the names 
of the others unknown, as usual not being introduced. 
There were about six or seven of them and almost all 
Tories, and therefore opponents of Gladstone and sup- 
porters of Disraeli. 



AT MR. GLADSTONE'S 21 

Later in the evening I went to Mr. Gladstone's by 
special invitation from his wife for a little family party. 
It is not at all uncommon in London to invite people to 
come in after dinner. With us it seems to be considered 
that if we cannot ask a person to dine, we had better 
not ask him to come in afterwards for fear it would look 
as if we were giving him a sort of second place; but that 
is not at all the way here, for sometimes those who are 
invited to come later are more distinguished than those 
at the dinner. Society is so large that one cannot ask 
everybody. These after-dinner assemblies, beginning 
about ten o'clock, are informal and delightful. 

I may say as to the dinners, you are usually asked for 
eight or even as late as half -past, and you are always ex- 
pected to be punctually late to the extent of exactly a 
quarter of an hour; that is, if you are asked to dine at 
eight, it means that you are expected at the door at 
quarter-past, and if for half -past eight, at a quarter to 
nine. The usual breakfast hour for professional men is 
nine o'clock, lunch at two, tea at five, and dinner at 
eight or half -past. For those of leisure the only difference 
is in the breakfast hour, which is a little later, say nine- 
thirty or ten. 

To come back to Mr. Gladstone's. He is living at 
23 Carlton House Terrace. It is a dull period in par- 
liamentary affairs. Gladstone's party, the Liberals, had 
been defeated a little over a year ago and he himself had 
nominally retired from politics. The only measure of 
importance in Disraeli's new government was the ec- 
clesiastical bill to restrain ritualistic practice among the 
High Church party, which was passed in the spring at 
the instance of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This 
brought Gladstone, who was one of the Oxford Tracta- 
rians and a High Churchman, out from his retirement, 



22 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

and the Marquis of Hartington, who had been the 
titular leader of the Liberals, gave way to Gladstone in 
important debates. 

To-day the engagement of Gladstone's elder son, 
William H., is announced, and all the family are full of 
the subject and talk of little else than wedding pres- 
ents, arrangements, etc. The fiancee is the Honorable 
Gertrude Stuart, daughter of Lord Blantyre. It is a 
pity that this should come just now, for it gives me less 
opportunity to see Mr. Gladstone at his best, as he goes 
into this matter with his usual energy and thoroughness, 
and it is hard to get him to say more than a few words 
on any other subject. 

He asked me about the number of inches of rainfall 
in Boston, which I gave him. I remarked that this was 
greater than the rainfall in London, though London has 
a reputation of being a wetter place than our eastern 
American cities, and as I had recently read the statistics 
in the English Guide Book, I mentioned the number of 
inches of rainfall in London and thought I had recol- 
lected rightly. I was right in the general fact that 
London had less precipitation than Boston, but did n't 
put the London water-fall quite low enough, by an inch 
or so, and Mr. Gladstone corrected me, and when I 
looked it up again, I found he was right, illustrating how 
retentive is his memory even in small details. 

Gladstone asked me about the general impression of 
the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher case, in America. 
The case referred to was a cause scandaleuse, linking 
his name with that of a Mrs. Til ton. I told him what I 
believed the feeling to be among sober, well-educated 
Americans, and he felt badly, though it was just what 
he feared, as he said, and yet he hoped it was not so. 
I told him that the evidence was such as to injure 



TALK WITH GLADSTONE 23 

Beecher's character for discretion in such matters very- 
much, although there was not enough evidence to con- 
vict him of anything further or even to lead a fair- 
minded man to believe that Beecher was surely guilty. 
He certainly set a bad example to society and was in- 
considerate of the husband. 

On the voyage over I had read Gladstone's recent 
pamphlet on "The Vatican Decrees and Civil Alle- 
giance," Cardinal Manning's Reply to it, and Glad- 
stone's Rejoinder. I spoke to him of these, and how I 
had studied them, and of his point that the decree of in- 
fallibility tends to make "a [Roman] Catholic first and 
an Englishman afterwards." Gladstone, whose whole 
time for months had been taken up with the prepara- 
tion, especially of his rejoinder, evidently did not care 
to go into a discussion of the subject on this family 
occasion further than to remark something about 
Manning's "evasions" and "subtleties," and to speak 
of the difficulties of distinguishing in practice between 
matters of faith and morals on the one hand and duty 
to a country on the other; and he also referred to Man- 
ning's point that the infallibility of any papal decree 
was not settled to be such until passed on by the Schola 
Theologorum. This Gladstone suggested left the matter 
in doubt, in some cases for a generation, and mean- 
while a faithful Catholic might have to take all papal 
utterances as infallible till declared otherwise, as his 
conscientious duty and only safe course. 

Gladstone also said a word about the restraints on 
ritual in the Disraeli law as being a form of persecution 
in matters of conscience and unwise as a method of 
avoiding extremes. 

Mrs. Gladstone follows with the most intense in- 
terest everything that her husband says and evidently 



24 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

worships him. If a wife "makes or mars a husband's 
career," she certainly gives him inspiration. (Years 
afterwards Lord George Hamilton, in his " Parliamen- 
tary Reminiscences," though a bitter opponent of Glad- 
stone, pays her this high tribute: "No Prime Minister 
ever had a more devoted, and in my judgment, a more 
capable helpmate. She never showed in the most diffi- 
cult and awkward positions either want of dignity or 
resource, and her inherent kindness of heart and good 
nature were universally admitted by all who knew her.") 
I Gladstone, I am informed, asks many questions on 
any subject in which he thinks his interlocutor is in- 
formed. Like Sir Robert Peel, he extracts from a 
specialist the essence of his knowledge in short time. 
He has no pride in the matter, for though he has such 
an enormous amount of accurate information himself, 
he is quite ready to admit his ignorance of any fact he 
does not know. Fact, I say, for some assert that, at his 
present age, he is not easily receptive to new theories 
contrary to his established opinions. 

^Gladstone's voice is clear, distinct, resonant, flexible, 
and has a large range. It is not the ministerial, empty- 
barrel, deep kind, like that of our General Banks, 
" Vox et prater ea nihil," but more like that of Wendell 
Phillips, combining both cultivation and naturalness. 
It is free from affectation. There is no stammering or 
lisping or mouthing. There is a directness of emphasis, 
if that is the right phrase to use. I mean such a con- 
trolling desire to convince as carries the emphasis nat- 
urally to just the right word. In talking he uses almost 
no gesture. There was a conversational charm, a co- 
piousness of words and ideas, no tautology and much 
courtesy, and yet an eagerness of spirit withal. It was 
very inspiring to meet so great a man, and also dis- 



ENGLISH PRONUNCIATIONS 25 

couraging, for there is evidently a power of brain which 
cannot be acquired by any amount of self-cultivation or 
study. 

Gladstone is tall, with spare figure, somewhat hollow 
cheeks with high cheek-bones, and slightly Roman 
nose, deep-set, eagle eyes of dark color that seem to 
pierce through you, broad forehead, and long hair, thin 
at the top, almost bald, a firm-set mouth and strong 
chin. His complexion is rather pale for an Englishman. 
He is now sixty-six years of age. He wears his clothes 
loose, with no attempt at elegance, and has the high, 
long-pointed collars, so much caricatured in "Punch." 

I notice that the majority of the people I have met so 
far drop their "g's" in the present participle. It is 
" huntin'," " ridin'," etc. They pronounce " interesting " 
in three syllables. We naturally slur the second, but 
they omit it altogether. We pronounce "extraordinary " 
eks-tror'di-na-ry , while here many of them drop the third 
syllable, making it eks-tror'na-ry. It was noticeable 
that Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone both pronounced these 
words as we do in America. 

A few days ago I called with John F. Andrew, son of 
our Massachusetts war governor, the late John A. An- 
drew, on Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Duff. They had been our 
fellow-passengers on the Parthia sailing from Boston 
July 3d, and to me they were the most exciting persons 
aboard. They were a handsome, young Scottish couple 
on their wedding tour. 

"Or when the moon was overhead, 
Came two young lovers lately wed." 

She was a Tennant and probably an elder sister of the 
famously charming Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton. They asked 
me to visit them if I should be in their part of Scotland, 



26 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

rather better put than the Irishman's invitation: "If 
you are within ten miles of my place, I hope you will 
stop there." We found them at her father's and had a 
pleasant call and chat about our voyage, the fellow- 
passengers, etc., of the Reverend Samuel F. Smith, the 
author of our national hymn "America," and his origi- 
nal poem for our 4th of July celebration entitled "Miss 
America's Tea Party," in which Boston citizens dis- 
guised as Indians made tea in Boston Harbor for the 
teapot over one hundred years ago; and of the mock 
trial, the singing, and also the serenade on leaving 
Boston intended for an Irish priest on our vessel, thrill- 
ing us with "Home, Sweet Home," "The Wearing of 
the Green," "The Harp that Once Through Tara's 
Hall," and "Auld Lang Syne." The call was a little 
hectic, however, as they were all to leave their London 
lodgings in a few hours for the North, and the room 
had portmanteaus and luggage about and there were 
servants coming and going in preparation. 

Our steamer, the Parthia, was small — only 3167 
tons 1 — and as customary, even the F.F.B.'s and the 
English passengers wore rough clothes and flannel 
shirts, and no one dressed for evening dinner. The boat 
had auxiliary sails, so in a shift of wind at night I would 
hear the thud of coils thrown on deck, the rattle of 
blocks, the lively cries of "Yeo hie, yeo ho!" as the 
sailors pulled at the sheets, and the boatswain's order, 
"Make fast! belay!" Every hour during the passage 
the log was thrown over, just as on shipboard in my 

1 The first Cunard steamer to cross the ocean, the Britannia, sailing 
from Liverpool to Boston in 1840, was 1154 tons. The Scythia, the largest 
of their boats in 1875, was 4557. Our boat used forty-five tons of coal a day. 
The Olympic, the largest Cunard steamship in 1920, is 46,359 tons register 
and burns a thousand tons or more of coal daily. The Leviathan is 54,282 
tons gross. 



THE CUNARD LINE 27 

father's day when he sailed round Cape Horn. We 
recalled how on arriving at Liverpool, when the pas- 
sengers were all on deck, dressed for going ashore, the 
Cunard Company took the opportunity to blow out the 
smokestacks, showering us with cinders, and how, when 
we protested, the officials replied: "The Cunard Line 
never lost a passenger." Then, too, what smells we had 
during the voyage; a mixed odor of bilge water, pickles, 
oil, brass polish, and general sourness, and how we were 
waked up in the small hours of the night, before reach- 
ing Liverpool, by groans, shrieks, and loud brays 
suggesting the killing of the donkey engine. 



CHAPTER II 
SECOND WEEK IN LONDON 

Thursday, July 22 

Strolling down the Haymarket in the morning I met 
Lord and Lady Frederick Cavendish walking up. Lady 
Frederick and I both smiled, for it was the fourth time 
we had met in different places during the last eighteen 
hours, which is, of course, remarkable in such a huge 
city as London. 

In the afternoon I went down to the House of Com- 
mons at Sir William Vernon Harcourt's invitation. I 
sent in my card to him and was shown into the inner 
lobby, which I had hardly entered when out rushed a 
member in a state of wild excitement, throwing his 
arms about and shaking his fists and making short 
ejaculations such as, "I will expose the villains, all of 
them!" I heard the word "cheats" and I think "liars." 
The man's excitement was great and he spoke hurriedly 
and disconnectedly. For my part I was astonished at 
the scene. I knew nothing whatsoever of the situation 
or what he was talking about. The general impression 
on me was that I never had seen an educated man so 
thoroughly given up to the passion of the moment. At 
the French Assembly, or even at Washington, I should 
not have been so much surprised, but it was very 
strange to see all this in the decorous House of Com- 
mons. I was told that it was Mr. Plimsoll. Good blind 
Fawcett, the political economist, and other members 
tried to calm Plimsoll, but all to no purpose. He would 
not be led away nor even allow a hand to be put on him. 
The lobby was soon cleared of strangers by the officers 



PLIMSOLL AND THE SHIPPING BILL 29 

of the House, so I did not see how they managed to get 
the honorable member calmed and away. Soon I learned 
that the Government had announced the "slaughter 
of the innocents," and the Merchants' Shipping Bill, 
which was Plimsoll's pet measure, and which the Gov- 
ernment had practically promised him would be car- 
ried out at this session, had been included in the slaugh- 
ter. This bill provided for the ship load-mark and for 
giving sailors a right to claim from public authorities a 
survey of the vessel and its food so as to prevent their 
being sent to the bottom in unseaworthy vessels for 
the sake of the insurance which the owners might get, 
or be forced to rely on insufficient, old, or musty food. 

To understand the need of the Plimsoll bill one should 
know that seamen, once having signed a contract, 
called the "shipping articles," for their services on a 
voyage, can be forced by the courts to go on that voy- 
age in the vessel for which they have signed. In no other 
civil occupation can a contract be thus enforced. A 
coachman who does not keep his contract for service, 
though theoretically liable in money for damages, can- 
not by law be compelled to work against his will. In 
practice sailors sign shipping articles without examin- 
ing the vessel on which they are to sail, usually having 
no opportunity to do so, or to know about its supply of 
food, which is often put on board the last day before 
sailing. 

One should also know that in marine insurance "val- 
ued" policies are common. That is, a sum is agreed 
upon to be paid in case of total loss of ship and cargo 
without regard to the actual value of the same. On the 
other hand, in fire insurance on buildings or on their 
contents, the opposite is true. If a house is insured for 
$15,000, for example, and the value is only $10,000, 



30 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

under the ordinary policies of insurance, in case of total 
loss by fire not more than $10,000 can be recovered. 

These valued policies on ships and cargoes give addi- 
tional incentive to sending unsea worthy vessels, called 
"coffin ships," on voyages in the hope of getting in- 
surance greater than the actual loss sustained, and thus 
are risked the lives of the sailors. 

I am told that while Plimsoll got his sympathy for 
the under dog from his own early struggles with poverty, 
that sympathy was specially directed to the case of 
sailors in the first instance from reading my father's 
"Two Years Before the Mast." (I regret not having 
arranged to meet him, but the season was short and 
people were only too hospitable to me, so I had to leave 
undone many things that I should have done. Later 
Plimsoll visited the United States in an effort to elimi- 
nate from our histories and school textbooks, the bitter 
denunciations against Great Britain in connection with 
the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.) To come 
back to the "episode": it turned out that, in the House, 
Plimsoll had denounced Disraeli in the most violent 
terms as not being a man of his word and "a liar," and 
when called to order by the Speaker, would not re- 
tract. Some of his friends at the time went so far as to 
say that he had lost his mind from brooding over his 
bill. The tragedy of Ajax naturally occurred to me, 
where the old hero became demented while brooding 
over the loss of the armor of Achilles. 

Soon after Sir William came out and took me into the 
House, but it was evidently in a very unnatural state. 
The "Hears" were weak or forced. There was no dis- 
turbance, yet no one was listened to, and the speakers 
spoke as one might speak after a deafening clap of 
thunder. All were evidently under great nervous ten- 




SIR WILLIAM VERNON HARCOURT 



GLADSTONE IN THE HOUSE 31 

sion. (This was before the times of Parnell's leadership 
of the Irish Home Rule group, when the House became 
accustomed to violent scenes.) This tension continued 
for some time, and even Disraeli failed to "amuse" the 
House. But not long after Mr. Gladstone got up and 
made a short but earnest speech against the Govern- 
ment's arranging their plans and debating measures in 
caucus instead of publicly in the House and then not 
telling the House the results of their deliberations. 
After this the members settled down to their usual state 
of mind. The "Hears" were loud and natural, and I 
think I am not mistaken in saying that it was because 
they recognized an old leader in whom they had con- 
fidence and he, though in the minority, alone set them 
right. It had a magic effect like the sudden appearance 
of Sheridan at the Battle of Winchester in the Civil 
War. 

Sir William took me into the Members' Dining- 
Room. It was against the rule to take strangers there. 
They had to go to the Strangers' Room. It was just 
like Sir William to ignore such rules. He goes to the 
heart of matters and prefers not to be bound by formal- 
ities. Besides, he is large and physically powerful, a 
prominent member in line for being Prime Minister 
some day, and has such a "blinking smile" as to intimi- 
date any too officious waiter. Sir William belongs to 
one of the oldest families in Great Britain. He gained 
first-class honors at Cambridge and has been Solicitor- 
General (later, 1880, he was Secretary of State for the 
Home Department and Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
1885-86, and again, 1892-95). 

At the dinner Sir William spoke of his desire to see 
entail abolished in England. I told him that in America, 
where we have no entail, it was not at all uncommon for 



32 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

people to want it reestablished in order to hold the 
old family heirlooms together and to keep up large 
houses. 

He had discovered a flaw in the bill under discussion, 
still the Agricultural Holdings Bill, in that there was 
nothing to prevent collusion between the tenant for life 
and the lessee to charge the estate with more than the 
real value of improvements. That defect he had reme- 
died, but it had led him to say that the defect was just 
what he wished to see exist, for it would furnish a means 
of killing an entail. This Agricultural Holdings Bill 
receives the support of the tenants as they think it will 
benefit them, while the landlords are mollified by ex- 
plaining in turn to them that there is nothing to pre- 
vent writing clauses into a lease which would deprive 
the tenant of any of the advantages of the bill, because 
the bill is permissive and not mandatory, and the land- 
lords feel that in the present demand for real estate 
they can get the tenants to accept such clauses. 

I have not so far mentioned that in the House of 
Commons the members wear their tall silk hats except 
when addressing the House. You sometimes see these 
hats pulled over their eyes, and whether they are sleep- 
ing or pondering over debate is a matter only of con- 
jecture. They do not wear gloves as they did when my 
great-uncle, Edmund Dana, was present about 1801. 

Friday, July 23 

Lunched at Spencer House again, where were Lord and 
Lady Spencer and Lord Charles Bruce, M.P., son of the 
Marquis of Ailesbury. Lord Charles had married a 
sister of Lady Spencer. After lunch Spencer, his brother- 
in-law and I drove to Wimbledon to see the military 
camp, target-shooting, and manoeuvres. On the way 



RIFLE CONTESTS AT WIMBLEDON 33 

we met, driving in her landau, and had a bow from the 
handsome and stately Princess Alexandra of Wales. 
Spencer told me she was somewhat deaf. We wit- 
nessed the 1000- and 1100-yard rifle contests, and saw 
three of the American team which had just won the 
International Rifle Match. 

We watched the cavalry shooting, which was done in 
squads of four. These squads had to mount, gallop off, 
jump two hurdles, dismount, fire five shots apiece at 
200 yards distance, mount, ride farther on, and dis- 
mount again for 400-yard shots. I saw two pretty bad 
spills, but no one seriously injured. I was introduced to 
several distinguished persons, some of them of title, but 
with my bad memory for names and meeting so many 
persons unexpectedly at once, I do not recall the names 
as I am writing this journal later in the evening. 

I saw there a wonderful "bull's-eye" made by Queen 
Victoria at 1000 yards, and asked how it was possible 
for her to shoot so well, having my suspicions, however, 
which were verified when Spencer explained to me that 
the rifle was set in a vice, the wind tested, the rifle fired 
several times until it was exactly adjusted, and then a 
silken cord was tied at one end to the trigger and the 
other end the Queen pulled. 

Spencer gave an illustration of his dignity and tact. 
He was either the head or one of the head directors 
of the Wimbledon Encampment. We were standing 
inside the lines and a captain came up and ordered us 
back. Instead of ignominiously retiring, on the one 
hand, or asserting his authority, on the other, he talked 
to this captain about some of the arrangements so that 
it began to dawn on the captain's mind that he was 
talking with one of the chief directors, and then Spencer 
graciously said, "Perhaps it is better for us to retire 



34 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

within the lines and set a good example to the others." 
And with composure and calm we walked slowly back. 

We drove through Richmond Park to Pembroke 
Lodge, the suburban home of Earl Russell, formerly 
and better known to us as Lord John Russell. Spencer 
had written to have them ask me to dinner (this was 
before the days of telephones) . I accepted, but he him- 
self could not stay on account of other engagements. 
After the ladies had left the table I got up and sat next 
to Lord Russell. He was in his eighty-third year. At 
first he seemed somewhat absent and ignored my pres- 
ence, but soon he fell to talking and I enjoyed him im- 
mensely. We had several people beside the family, two 
young members of Parliament among them. 

Lord John Russell, born in 1792, was prominent in 
politics as far back as the reign of George IV, was pay- 
master of the forces in the beginning of the reign of 
William IV, during which reign he was also Secretary of 
State for the Home Department, so his memory of big 
events goes back to those days and the earliest Vic- 
torian era. His voice is high-pitched and querulous, 
and he has the same spare figure, small stature, large 
head and eyes that we were all so familiar with in the 
London "Punches." He talked much, easily, and in 
detail about things that were known to me only in out- 
line, and the topics changed so rapidly that I was un- 
able to make a good report of all he said. I wished I had 
had a stenographer behind the door to take it all down. 
They invited me to come Sunday afternoon and spend 
the night. 

I returned to London with the two young members of 
Parliament, who took me with them into the House of 
Commons, and I saw the procedure of "complaints on 
motion to go into committee on supplies." The House 




LORD RUSSELL 

(FORMERLY LORD JOHN RUSSELL) 

FROM A DRAWING BY G. F. WATTS 



PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE 35 

of Commons, having the sole power over supplies, takes 
the opportunity, whenever a motion is made to bring up 
a question of supplies, to slander the Government in 
every way. The complaints were very general and on all 
sorts of matters. It is customary to give the broadest 
license at these times, not keeping the members in the 
slightest degree to the motion or to any of the items of 
the contemplated appropriations. One of these mem- 
bers of Parliament who took me in was a young Irish- 
man, and knowing that I wanted to see all the procedure 
in the House and noticing that there was no quorum 
present, said: "If you have never seen it before, I will 
call the Speaker's attention to the lack of quorum and 
have a counting out." This he did for my special bene- 
fit. When the counting began there were only thirty- 
eight, but one zealous member dragged in three of his 
friends so as to bring the number above the necessary 
forty and business continued. 

Saturday, July 24 

Dined at Mr. Smalley's. The company consisted of 
Mr. and Mrs. Smalley, Mr. Robinson, and Sir William 
Frederick and Lady Pollock. Sir William Frederick 
Pollock is a baronet. George W. Smalley has been for 
many years the London editorial correspondent of the 
New York "Tribune." He is now in the prime of life, 
forty-two years of age. Sir Frederick Pollock is the son 
of the celebrated Sir J. Frederick Pollock, Bart., chief 
baron of the Court of Exchequer, who rendered the 
decisions in the case of the Laird rams so hostile to 
the cause of the North in the Civil War. The present 
Sir Frederick who succeeded his father five years ago, 
seems to have no hostility towards America, but rather 
a friendly feeling. He is a Queen's remembrancer, has 



36 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

translated Dante's "Divina Commedia," and has re- 
cently been made one of the judges of the Court of 
Admiralty. He was very kind, and not only offered to 
show me the courts, but also invited me to dinner five 
days hence. 

Smalley asked me many questions about affairs at 
home, but I believed he was far better informed than I 
on the present state of politics in America. We talked 
about the disappointment in the character and ability 
of Grant's cabinet, all except Fish, the Secretary of 
State, who was both able and high-minded; and on the 
unsettled conditions in the South. 

Sir Frederick Pollock begins his sentences at very 
high pitch with a sort of squeak or whine and grad- 
ually comes down lower and lower; but when he is 
thoroughly interested in his subject and gets well going, 
he gives up this descent from high to low and goes on in 
a delightful, rich, and natural voice. 

Sunday, July 25 

Went to the Inner Temple in the morning on a pass 
from Sir Robert Phillimore. Dr. Vaughan preached the 
best sermon I ever heard. Considering the great repu- 
tation of the Temple choir, sometimes thought to be 
the best in Great Britain, I was a little disappointed. 
The anthem was a long duet for baritone and tenor. 

Lunched with Mr. Ferguson at the Devonshire Club 
and went with him for coffee to the Reform Club. In 
the latter it is against the rule to have strangers in any 
part of the club but a small waiting-room and we were 
sitting in the large reading-room. The waiter would 
bring but one cup of coffee, which Mr. Ferguson insisted 
upon my taking while he smoked. Most of the great 
London clubs are what we should consider very un- 



DINNER WITH EARL RUSSELL 37 

sociable. Those clubs which allow visitors only admit 
them into the Strangers' Room, which is unusually 
small, unless the strangers are armed with a special 
invitation from the governing committee, which I had 
not then received. 

Sir John Kennaway one day took me all over Carlton 
Club, the great Tory institution, but said it was against 
the rule for him to do so, and he did not like to have 
me stay long in any of the rooms, and in the end I had to 
sit on a bench in the hall, doing nothing, while he was 
attending to some committee matter. 

Later on this Sunday afternoon I went again to Pem- 
broke Lodge, Richmond, Earl Russell's, and was most 
kindly received. A dinner of all the family excepting 
the eldest son, Lord Amberley, who is away and is in 
mourning for his wife who died a year ago. (He died 
the very next year.) The other guests were Admiral 
Elliot, who is Lady Russell's brother, his wife, Lady 
Harriet Emily, and their son. (This Honorable Sir 
Charles Gilbert Elliot in 1881 was made admiral of the 
combined British fleet.) Lady Harriet is a daughter 
of the Earl of Ravensworth. After the ladies had left 
the dining-room, Earl Russell called me to sit down by 
his side. This especially pleased me, for I was afraid I 
had been a little too forward, for so young a man, in 
sitting by him last Friday night without an invitation 
to do so. We talked much about the present, past, and 
future of England and America. Russell said he thought 
George Washington was "the greatest man of the age." 
He asked me who I thought would be the next President 
of the United States. I said, "Not Grant." We agreed 
in hoping it might be Charles Francis Adams, but did 
not think it likely. I said it was not likely unless the 
Republican Party would nominate him to secure some 



38 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

of the independent Democrats and those who were in- 
clined to Democracy on account of their opposition to 
the machine methods of the Republican Party, and 
possibly to gain some of the Border State votes. Russell 
said he saw Senator John Sherman and liked him, and 
should think that he would make a good President. 

In the evening Lady Harriet Elliot and I sang some 
hymns, and our voices went very well together, I sing- 
ing a sort of alto-bass. Lady Russell showed me her 
book with many valuable autograph letters, pointing 
out one from Herbert Spencer which was extremely 
faulty, notwithstanding his essay on the "Philosophy 
of Style," as I think it is called. There was one from 
Queen Victoria in her own hand and of her own com- 
position, which was very interesting, but full of mis- 
takes. One sentence began in the third person and went 
on in the second, for example, and the spelling was 
atrocious. 

Lady Russell, who has been lady-in-waiting on the 
Queen and very familiar with her, told me that in pri- 
vate the royal family always speak in the German 
language. 

Monday, July 26 

Pembroke Lodge, Richmond. Breakfasted at nine 
o'clock. Took a short walk about the grounds before 
breakfast and wished at the Wishing Tree (a wish which 
has since come true) and was greeted by Lady Russell 
from her window on my return to the house. At break- 
fast were Lady Russell and her brother, the Admiral 
and his son, a boy of eight or nine, Lady Agatha Russell, 
and Rollo, youngest son of Earl Russell. The breakfast, 
as usual in England, was very informal, and after the 
servants had once placed the food on the sideboard they 




COUNTESS RUSSELL 

(FORMERLY LADY JOHN RUSSELL) 
1884 



AT PEMBROKE LODGE 39 

disappeared and we helped ourselves and changed our 
own plates. The gentlemen sometimes waited on the 
ladies. I took pleasure in doing so whenever I could, 
but frequently the ladies got ahead of me in walking 
quickly to the sideboard and serving themselves. 

After breakfast I began a pencil and chalk sketch of 
the beautiful view in front of the house, and was inter- 
rupted by Lady Russell, who kindly took me to drive 
with Lady Agatha and herself round Richmond Park. 
This was a beautiful drive, the air being clear and brac- 
ing like ours at home and not as sultry and damp as 
usual in England at this time, and I felt so joyous and 
happy among these good,, sympathetic, warm-hearted 
people in such weather, with the soft green grass, gor- 
geous flowers, and superb view. I saw great numbers 
of quite tame deer, which the Duke of Cambridge hunts 
with his hounds about twice a year. Came back at eleven, 
finished the sketch, and made one of the house itself. 

We lunched at two. The party was the same as 
at breakfast with the addition of Lady Harriet Emily 
Elliot, the wife of the admiral, who is Lady Russell's 
brother, Lord Russell himself, who had not been with 
us at breakfast, and a young man from Wimbledon. 
We three young men played lawn tennis, the first time 
I ever took part in this game. I held up my side in 
doubles and singles, too, pretty well considering that the 
others had played tennis a good deal. (In those days 
the net was six inches higher than at present and the 
service was underhand so that the play was not then as 
swift as it is now. This made it an easier game for a 
beginner to learn.) 

Walked and talked and sat out of doors with Lady 
Russell and her daughter, Lady Agatha. Lady Russell 
makes a most admirable hostess; she keeps the con versa- 



40 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

tion going without interfering, guiding it by responsive 
comment or question and only leading when it becomes 
necessary. She is most attentive to her husband and his 
wants. He, of course, is now old and feeble, and while 
able to walk, goes about a good deal in a rolling chair. 
Lady Russell, while not handsome, has a most sympa- 
thetic and intellectual expression of face. Her maiden 
name was Lady Frances Anna Maria Elliot, and she 
is the daughter of the second Earl of Minto. She was 
born in 1815 and married in 1841. She is the mother of 
Lord Amberley and all the other children of the Earl. 
Lord John's first wife was widow of Lord Ribblesdale, 
and she died without leaving children in 1838. (Lady 
Russell's letters, published after her death, show a 
wonderful interest in all public affairs, knowledge of 
persons and character, a deep love for her friends, and 
keen sympathy for all in need of it.) Lady Russell in- 
vited me to come again on Friday next to dine and spend 
the night and stay till Monday morning if possible. 
On leaving was driven to the station in a pony carriage 
and got to my rooms in time to prepare for a dinner at 
Lord Frederick Cavendish's at exactly seven o'clock. 
I met there Lord and Lady Edward Cavendish (whose 
son is now the Duke of Devonshire), Mr. and Mrs. 
Gladstone, and Lady Lyttelton, stepmother of Lady 
Frederick, Lady Frederick being the daughter of Lord 
Lyttelton by his first wife, who was a sister of Mrs. 
Gladstone, so that Lady Frederick is Mrs. Gladstone's 
niece. We had a rather hurried dinner and went to the 
theatre at eight. 

Almost the whole talk at the dinner was about the 
wedding presents for Gladstone's eldest son, who, as I 
have already stated, was lately engaged and is soon to 
be married. 



TO THE THEATRE WITH GLADSTONE 41 

All of us but Lord Frederick and Mrs. Gladstone went 
to the Prince of Wales Theatre and saw the play of 
"Money," by Lord Lytton. Going to the theatre Mr. 
Gladstone rode on the outside of the carriage to direct 
the driver. George Honey took the part of Mr. Graves, 
Miss Marie Wilton that of Lady Franklin, capitally 
done, and Ellen Terry that of Clara Douglas, and acted, 
of course, charmingly. Between the parts I went to see 
Earl Spencer and his beautiful wife, whom I had noticed 
in another part of the theatre. Spencer gave up his 
seat to me and went to speak with our party, and in this 
way we sat for one scene and then changed back again 
just as the curtain rose for the scene following. 

On the way home Gladstone insisted on walking for 
exercise, and had I known at the time that the ladies 
had a manservant with them (for they had to take a 
cab) I should have walked with Gladstone myself, but 
thought it was my duty to escort the ladies. We had 
late evening tea at Lady Frederick's, Mr. Gladstone 
joining us soon after our arrival. The talk was of the 
stage as a profession and whether it is one an educated 
person of good family should follow or not, on which 
there was a division of opinion. Gladstone, during the 
tea and also in some of the intervals during the play, 
was immensely absorbed in the topic of the various ac- 
tors, how they did their parts, of the play itself, and how 
it might have been improved by one alteration or an- 
other. 

He was surprised to hear that in Massachusetts we 
had a large surplus of women and that women's work as 
seamstress and the like was badly paid. He said in 
Wales there were no murders, that the Welsh people 
were very kindly, fond of music, and sang much in 
choruses. The party broke up at twelve. They took me 



42 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

into the family as if I were a relative or at least a friend 
of long standing. 

Tuesday, July 27 

Took a long walk in the morning for exercise, of which 
I have had only too little in this London social life, and 
dined with Dr. Charles H. Williams, Harvard '71, and 
his classmate, Horace D. Chapin, both of Boston. They 
took me to the Holborn Restaurant and to their rooms 
afterwards. They gave some amusing anecdotes of their 
travels and spoke of the low standards of the Germans, 
especially the Austrians — for they had been long in 
Vienna — in regard to women and how much higher 
were the ideals of American young men, at least of 
those we knew. Charles Williams goes to the hospital 
in London every day and says the nursing and general 
care of patients is not as good here as in the Massachu- 
setts General Hospital in Boston. 

This was the first evening I had not been invited to 
dine with English friends and for some single evenings 
I have had two and in one case even three invitations. 

Wednesday, July 28 

Called on Lord Tenterden at the Foreign Office in the 
morning, but found he was out and had to satisfy myself 
with leaving a card. After lunch I called on the follow- 
ing: Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, who were both out, and 
Lord and Lady Frederick Cavendish. Lady Frederick 
was in and I found a Miss Smith calling. I made a 
rather short but very agreeable visit. The fire was low 
and Lady Frederick called for a servant to replenish it; 
but as it happened, the servant whose duty it was to 
look after the fires was away, and though there were 
several other servants at hand in the house, both foot- 



LORD RUSSELL'S OVERCOAT 43 

men and maids, she said she could not ask them to do 
this simple task; so I did it for her — a very small mat- 
ter, indeed, but illustrating how amusingly and fantas- 
tically the work among the really admirable and civil 
domestics in Great Britain is divided. 

I next called on Mr. Robert Ferguson, who said he 
would give me a letter to his brother-in-law in Birming- 
ham. Next I called at Spencer House, where I found 
Lady Spencer and her brother-in-law, Lord Charles 
Bruce. Spencer himself had just gone out driving. 
We spoke of the play the night before and the injustice 
that is done noblemen in such comedies, as a bit of mere 
claptrap and play to the galleries, or "groundlings" as 
they used to say in Shakespeare's days, and of the real 
worth and value of many noblemen in English life, 
politics, and constructive legislation. Called at Sir 
Robert Phillimore's, where all were out. Next at Dr. 
Jones's, where they made me sing a negro melody. At 
Sir John Kennaway's I found Lady Kennaway in. She 
was very cordial and sang me a Scottish song, "The 
Auld Home," and hoped I could arrange my time so as 
to visit them in their Devonshire home (a really mag- 
nificent castle) at Ottery St. Mary. The.Smalleys were 
out of town, and here ended my calls for the after- 
noon. 

During the day Lord Russell's servant appeared with 
my overcoat, and it turned out that I had taken "My 
Lord's" by mistake and had been wearing it all day. 
It was rather strange that it fitted me at all, for he is so 
much smaller than I. It must be very loose for him. I 
felt it was no little honor to have worn the coat of such 
a man. It might have been an omen that by chance the 
mantle of the greatest of surviving statesmen of his day 
should have fallen on me, like that of Elijah on Elisha, 



44 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

only in this case the mantle had to be returned, which I 
feared was an omen the other way. 

Dined in the evening at the Devonshire Club with 
Sir William Vernon Harcourt. He got up this dinner ex- 
pressly for me and I sat at his right. There were alto- 
gether fourteen gentlemen beside myself, and among 
them Lord Young, Lord Advocate of Scotland; Mr. 
Mayne, the author of "Ancient Law"; Lord Dalkeith, 
eldest son and heir of the Duke of Buccleugh, who sat 
on Sir William's left; young Lord George Hamilton, 
member of Parliament and under-secretary for India, 
son of the Duke of Abercorn and a Tory, and on the 
opposite side in politics from Sir William (afterwards 
First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for 
India, and author of "Parliamentary Reminiscences, 
1916"); Millais, the artist; and others, all fourteen be- 
ing distinguished. Millais is very handsome except for 
a defect in one eyelid, and is brilliant. He talked too 
much and too loud. His voice seemed charging up and 
down the table like a troop of cavalry. He told many 
anecdotes of Lord Byron, which he had picked up, and 
some of them were rather "spicy." The talk drifted on 
to the Constitution of the United States, about which 
they asked me some questions. I explained that the 
Federation under which we carried on the Revolutionary 
War was a combination of States. It worked through a 
Continental Congress, but provided no executive and 
no federal courts, while the Constitution, adopted in 
1788, after the Federation had proved such a failure, 
was not an agreement between States, but of the 
"people" of the whole country, beginning, "We, the 
people of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect union ... do ordain and establish this Constitu- 
tion." 



SECESSION AND THE CONSTITUTION 45 

The Constitution provides a Supreme Court for the 
whole nation with power to decide state legislation un- 
constitutional, thereby nullifying state acts contrary 
to its provisions; also to decide questions between 
States, and with power through the President of the 
United States, the United States marshals, and a fed- 
eral army, to enforce its decrees. Under the Federation, 
secession was probably legal, but under the Constitu- 
tion it is hard to see how it is possible constitutionally 
and legally for a State to secede. The question of the 
right of secession, however, is to be clearly distinguished 
from a moral right to organize a revolution, but the 
Southern States did not claim that they were revolting; 
they claimed the right of secession as constitutional. 
This seemed new to them all excepting Sir William, 
who has been in the United States, knows more of our 
system, and, under the title of " Historicus," wrote 
some famous articles in the London "Times" in the 
early part of the Civil War, in opposition to the recog- 
nition by Great Britain of the Southern States as bellig- 
erents. 

During the coffee and smoking, after we left the 
table, three of the company who were members of 
Parliament — one of them a government whip — took 
me aside and urged me to stay on in England, give up 
my own country, and run for Parliament. They were 
sure they could secure me a seat. They said persons of 
education were not appreciated in American politics, 
instancing the cases of my father, Charles Francis 
Adams, and others, and set forth what a fine career 
it was for a man in the English Parliament. Notwith- 
standing this very flattering suggestion, perhaps slightly 
colored by the delicious dinner and varied wines, I told 
them that I loved my own country, and in so far as it 



46 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

was defective I hoped to help in setting it right, at least 
to do my little part, and that especially, as in such 
matters as abolishing the spoils system and establishing 
civil service reform, I felt there was much work that 
could be done outside of legislative positions. 

After smoking and talking in the Devonshire Club, 
some of us adjourned to the Cosmopolitan Club, where 
public and literary leaders gather late Wednesday and 
Saturday nights and where a lot of present politics and 
old political scandals were discussed. I met and shook 
hands with Anthony Trollope, the author. He spoke 
very pleasantly of my father and mother, whom he had 
met on the Continent lately, and of the many good talks 
they had had together. Lord Young, Lord Advocate of 
Scotland, was most kind to me, and insisted upon it 
that I must not fail to look him up when I go to Edin- 
burgh. He tells many funny stories, and by way of an 
exception which proves the rule, though a Scotchman, 
has a keen sense of humor and wit of his own, and is 
quick to catch the points in stories told by others. 

Harcourt invited me to the House of Commons to 
hear the Plimsoll settlement or apology or whatever it 
might turn out to be, which is to take place to-morrow. 
The general opinion in the club seemed to be that 
Plimsoll intended to create a sensation and even con- 
templated being put into confinement. He certainly did 
succeed in creating a great deal more sympathy from 
his disorderly conduct than he could have aroused in 
any other way. It was, however, clearly not all of it 
acting; he was really very much excited. The truth 
probably lies between the two extremes. He was doubt- 
less greatly worked up, took advantage of his oppor- 
tunity, and let his passion have pretty full sway. 
Disraeli intimated, but avoided directly asserting it, 



PLIMSOLL AND HIS BILL 47 

that he allowed all this scene to come off so as to secure 
the public backing outside necessary to enable him to 
pass the bill inside the House of Commons. Many- 
doubted the truth of this intimation and believed it to 
be but an adroit way of turning an actual blunder to 
his own benefit. I believed it was nothing but a bit of 
"Dizzy's" humor. (The main part of Plimsoll's bill 
passed this session and was perfected the next, in 1876.) 



CHAPTER III 
THE LAST OF MY FIRST LONDON SEASON 

Thursday, July 29 

Went to Westminster Abbey and spent two hours 
there about noon. After lunch went to the House of 
Commons by Sir William Vernon Harcourt's invitation, 
to hear PlimsolPs apology. Sir William came out and 
took me into the inner lobby, but there we found every 
place occupied. The Speaker of the House of Commons 
said he would put me into the Diplomatic Gallery, but 
even that was full; so as I should have to wait until a 
vacancy appeared somewhere, which might not occur 
until the interesting part of the session was over, I, 
after an hour's waiting, sent in my card asking Sir 
William not to trouble himself any more, and then took 
a ride up the river in a steamer as far as Chelsea and 
got back in time to dress for dinner at Sir William 
Frederick Pollock's. 

There were present Sir William Frederick and Lady 
Pollock, both very cordial and agreeable, Lady Pollock 
with a literary reputation, also his son Frederick 
Pollock (later Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., in his turn, 
the celebrated legal authority, lecturer, etc.). Every- 
where I go my father's name is a remarkably good in- 
troduction. I had no letter to the Pollocks. I had met 
him at Smalley's. Sir William said that he found in his 
work as Judge of the Admiralty Courts my father's 
"Seaman's Manual" was perfectly invaluable, and he 
kept it by him in and out of court. It is the stand- 
ard authority, he said, and of course he had read 
"Two Years Before the Mast." The evening passed 



PEMBROKE LODGE 49 

very pleasantly. The Plimsoll matter turned out very 
quietly, "a tame affair" as they called it, ending in an 
apology for misconduct, but adherence to all the facts 
as he had stated them, so I did not lose very much after 
all in not being present. 

Friday, July 30 

I called on the Honorable Arthur Kinnaird at the 
bank. He was apparently busy, so I only thanked him 
for his kindness and delivered a letter of introduction 
to him which I had just received from Lord Kinnaird, 
although this letter was unnecessary. Edmund Dana, 
the only brother of Judge Francis Dana, my great- 
grandfather, went to England, became a clergyman of 
the Established Church there and married a daughter 
of the then Lord Kinnaird, so the family have always 
taken us as in a way connected with them. 
\ Afterwards I looked at some fine old carved furniture 
which I stumbled upon by accident in a quaint shop. 
It had been bought at various auctions or private sales 
from some of the best families and was wonderfully 
cheap. 

This morning I received a short note from Mr. Glad- 
stone, so that I am a proud possessor of an autograph 
letter of his addressed to me. 

Afterwards left London at the end of the day for 
Richmond, and when I arrived at Pembroke Lodge I 
found the Countess on the bowling green with some 
callers, among whom was Lord Colin Campbell, the 
youngest son of the Duke of Argyll, whom I had met 
at Lord Frederick Cavendish's. Rollo and Colin played 
several games of tennis while we watched them, drank 
tea, and afterwards walked to see the views. I stood on 
the mound from which Henry VIII's messenger saw the 



50 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

rockets sent off from the Tower of London on the execu- 
tion of Anne Boleyn, while the King himself was wait- 
ing in a house near by. The vista is still kept open, but 
it is seldom clear enough to see the tower through the 
smoky London air of to-day. Soon there arrived Lord 
and Lady Selborne and their daughter and Lord and 
Lady Cardwell. These, with Colin Campbell, a stran- 
ger who left immediately after dinner, Lord and Lady 
Russell, Lady Agatha, and Rollo, made up the company 
at dinner. (Rollo Russell later became distinguished 
as a scientist, specializing in meteorology and still later 
in aeroplane work. He died in the early part of the 
Great War and during his life published many valuable 
treatises. See "Who's Who," 1914.) 

While it is not common to introduce people in Eng- 
land, you are always at liberty to talk with any one who 
is a guest of your host, though I found they frequently 
made an exception in my case, and did introduce, I 
being a stranger from America. If the name of a guest 
does not come out in the course of the conversation, the 
usual custom is to inquire of the butler, who always 
knows. At this dinner I sat between Lady Cardwell, 
who was on Lord Russell's right, and Lady Agatha, 
who was next to Lord Selborne, so I heard the best 
of the conversation. They spoke of a wonderful dog, 
about which I have read in the papers while here. It 
is now being exhibited and seems to have an almost 
human intelligence. This led to a little talk with Lord 
Selborne on animals, instinct, idealism, and the nature 
of matter, in which, from my interest in philosophy, I 
took an active part. They spoke of spirit photography, 
which seemed to mystify them. I told them some stories 
about it and explained two processes by which spirit 
photography could be easily and cheaply produced. 



LORD RUSSELL'S CONVERSATION 51 

Very few of the English educated men know about 
chemistry or the action of light or science generally. 
Science is only just beginning to be taught at Cam- 
bridge and hardly at all at Oxford. 

After the ladies left the room Lord Russell called 
Lord Selborne to his right and I sat next to him and 
Lord Cardwell on Russell's left. They got talking about 
old politics. From what Lord Russell said, it is to be 
inferred that the "Greville Papers" 1 were true about 
William IV and George IV. Many interesting anecdotes 
they told of Lord Brougham, one about his going to 
sleep through an able argument of an hour and a half 
to have a decision reversed. Brougham woke up at the 
end, saying, "The decision is confirmed." 

Lord Russell said that William IV was very good- 
natured, easy-going, and pleasant, but that he liked to 
play the king at times, especially if his companions 
treated him too familiarly; that he was fond of a "jaw," 
and sometimes said things at Windsor worse than any 
one would like to repeat. This was all pretty well known 
in history and has been enlarged on by Thackeray. 
Russell only confirmed it. The general society of the 
Court was, as Lord Russell put it, about on a level with 
a dancing-hall barroom. 

Lord Selborne told a story of how a Frenchman who 
knew Lord Brougham's reputation for being so great a 
judge, and who, in trying a case before him, suddenly 
discovered that his lordship was asleep, said in astonish- 
ment, "Mon Dieu! II dort." 

Lord Russell gave an account of the intemperance 
existing in London society during his younger days. He 

1 Extracts from the journals of Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville 
(1794-1865), great-grandson of the fifth Earl of Warwick, and clerk of the 
Council in Ordinary, having intercourse with royalty and the chiefs of all 
parties. 



52 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

said that when the ladies left the dining-room the host 
would arise, lock the door, fresh bottles of port would be 
brought in, and almost every man drank until he was 
under the table. With the exception of one or two men 
who kept sober, they never joined the ladies again, and 
a page, towards the end of the drinking, as the men 
slipped from their seats, would loosen the neck-cloths 
of the prostrate guests, and it was a regular custom for 
the valets to come in, carry out their masters, put them 
in their coaches, and escort them home. Lord Russell 
said some curious incidents arose when some of the 
valets were not themselves sober and substitutes had to 
take their places, and some of the masters were put 
into the wrong coaches and carried to the wrong houses 
about midnight or later, much to the astonishment of 
the wives and other members of the households. The 
recollection seemed very vivid and Russell chuckled 
over the memory. Whether he actually saw these in- 
cidents or only heard of them, he did not say. 

Lady Cardwell and Lord Selborne both urged me to 
let them know when I come back to London next year, 
as I plan to do, so they may invite me to dinner. They 
are soon to leave town and I am full of engagements 
to the end of the season, when grouse shooting begins, 
three days hence. Lord Selborne said to me of Lord 
Brougham, that putting a powerful leader of the House 
of Commons into the House of Lords was like cutting 
off Samson's locks. I knew that it had sometimes been 
called "kicking a man upstairs." As Lord Selborne 
himself had been Attorney-General, as Sir Roundell 
Palmer, and was himself given a peerage and promoted 
to the Upper House, he must have known whereof he 
was talking, and, indeed, probably had in mind his own 
exclusion from active statesmanship. 



KEW GARDENS 53 

Lord Cardwell is a viscount, created such only a 
little over a year ago. He took a double first at Oxford, 
was called to the Bar in 1838, has been Secretary of the 
Treasury, President of the Board of Trade, etc. He was 
Chief Secretary of Ireland at one time and later Secre- 
tary of State for the Colonies from 1864 to 1866. Again 
he was made Secretary of State for War and has been 
member of the House of Commons for about seventeen 
years. 

Saturday, July 31 

Pembroke Lodge. Read and took a walk in the park 
before lunch. Afterwards drove with Lady Agatha and 
Rollo to Kew Gardens. The outside of this was not very 
different from our Public Gardens in Boston excepting 
for its larger size and the superb foliage of the big trees. 
The conservatories, however, were beyond anything I 
have ever witnessed. I saw for the first time the Venus 
Fly Trap, a plant which catches, closes over, eats, and 
digests small flies as they alight. The properties of this 
plant have been made use of by Darwin in the develop- 
ment of his theory of evolution by natural selection. 

Before dinner we played three games of lawn tennis. 
At dinner were the family and a young Irish barrister. 
After dinner we played whist, and I did some tricks 
with cards and coins which I had learned for the enter- 
tainment of children and which were entirely new to all 
present, who seemed to think them more wonderful 
than they really were. 

Sunday, August 1 

Went to the Richmond church, which was of an old 
style with square pews, and there was a beadle dressed 
in a parti-colored gown. The singing was very plain 



54 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

and the sermon still more plain, mere words strung to- 
gether without any apparent purpose. 

Lady Ribblesdale and her son (who later married 
Mrs. John Astor) came in for lunch. At dinner we had 
the same party as yesterday except that Rollo was 
away, and we had two members of Parliament, one an 
Irish Catholic. I sat between Lord and Lady Russell and 
took Lady Russell in to dinner. We spoke of Edmund 
Burke, and I told of Rufus Choate's reading Burke so 
constantly and how he particularly liked the "Letter 
to a Late Noble Lord," and to my horror I suddenly re- 
membered that Earl Russell was descended from that 
very Duke of Bedford concerned, of whom Burke spoke 
in no very complimentary terms. I, however, turned 
the conversation to the literary merits of this great 
speech, leaving out any reference to the rights of the 
case. Lord Russell said that Burke's son, who died and 
was so lamented by his father, was so highly esteemed 
only by the father and not by others. He also said that 
one of Burke's best speeches was against employing 
Indians in the American or Revolutionary War with the 
colonists, and that this speech was lost and, of course, 
not among Burke's published works. 

He talked much about the great speakers and orators 
of Parliament in his time, of the French and Russian 
imitations of Parliament, and commended the wisdom 
of the founders of our American Constitution, and men- 
tioned some changes in it which he thought necessary. 
I told him that, though the American Constitution is 
nowadays held in such high esteem, it came very near 
being defeated; that many of the leaders in the country 
opposed it; that my great-grandfather, Francis Dana, 
contended for it with great earnestness in the Massa- 
chusetts Convention against Samuel Adams, Elbridge 



LORD RUSSELL ON AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 55 

Gerry, and others, where it was adopted only by a very 
close vote, and had it been defeated there it would have 
failed of adoption. 

Lord Russell agreed with my grandfather Dana's 
idea that a king and nobility in America would be a 
great blessing, believing the American people needed 
something to look up to. Of course this was only a 
fancy, for Russell knew well enough it would never 
work in our country. The people would never accept 
it. We shall in time outgrow our bumptiousness and 
cocksureness, which is sometimes so offensive to other 
nations, and do better in the end than if helped by any 
such artificial institutions, for, as I suggested, a bad king 
and dissolute members of the nobility might do more 
harm than good ones could offset. 

I continue to be surprised at finding how much the 
English ladies know of, and how well they talk on, 
national and political questions in comparison with the 
American ladies I have known. (Nowadays this is 
greatly changed in the United States.) 

Lord Russell showed much strength of mind even in 
discussing modern problems, and his memory for the 
past is very clear, but not always so for the present as 
to names and dates. He forgot that he had seen me a 
week before and repeated some things I had said, as 
told him by "an American he had lately met." 

The guests coming down to Pembroke Lodge for 
dinner are, by a long understanding, excused from 
dressing, the men appearing in their frock coats worn 
in the daytime in London. 

Monday, August 2 

Read a little and played lawn tennis a good deal more. 

I saw Lord Russell again at lunch. He repeated his re- 



56 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

mark of the other day that Washington was the great- 
est man of the age. He talked about the American 
trade with Japan and its growth and size, and when I 
told him it was carried on almost entirely in English 
vessels, he was greatly amused and chuckled to himself 
for some little time. 

Went "up" to town directly after lunch. London 
is always "up," except in relation to Oxford and Cam- 
bridge when it is "down," and the universities are 
"up." 

Found Tom Felton at Mrs. Brooks's. He was rather 
lonely and I was glad to cheer him up. He is the son 
of the late president of Harvard College, Cornelius Con- 
way Felton. 

To-day I took my first dinner at my own expense since 
July 15th, when I delivered my first letters. I went to 
the famous Simpson's Restaurant with a Harvard 
classmate. There they wheel up to your alcove table 
huge joints on warmed platters and before your face 
cut slices just as you direct. I visited again the Royal 
Art Exhibition and liked some of the pictures better 
than at my first visit. I looked up Millais's work with 
special interest since I have known him. Some of his 
portraits certainly seem to be of a very high order. 

Tuesday, August 3 

Called on Lady Pollock, whom I found in, and who 
gave me addresses and advice for Paris and France 
generally, which I am to visit this autumn. She reads 
and talks French easily. 

Called on Sir William Vernon Harcourt, whom I 
missed, as he was off for six weeks or more in Switzerland. 
Dined at the Savile Club. Parliament soon closes and 
the London season was brought to an end by the opening 



LORD RUSSELL AND THE TRENT AFFAIR 57 

of the grouse shooting. I surely have had great oppor- 
tunities in meeting so many of the distinguished men — 
many more than I have mentioned in this journal by 
name — in seeing the procedure of Parliament, and 
hearing all the men of mark there. I also went to the 
House of Lords and to some of the courts several times 
under good introductions, and I am now off for a trip in 
the country and to make a series of visits in big houses. 
Lord Frederick Cavendish asked me to visit them during 
Christmas season at Chatsworth, having secured an 
invitation for me from his father, the Duke of Devon- 
shire. There is to be a large and interesting party there, 
and as Chatsworth is the finest country house in England 
it is a great opportunity. However, I planned to be on 
the Continent, where I want to learn French, and it 
would upset those plans to come back for this one visit, 
and would also add greatly to the expense which I do 
not like to put upon my father. So I declined this in- 
vitation, attractive as it was. (Afterwards I regretted 
having declined, as it was an unusual opportunity to 
meet the Marquis of Hartington, the eldest son of the 
Duke, who was, I understood, to be in the party, and 
other prominent guests, and to see the Christmas festivi- 
ties in an old family. Had I stayed but a week or two 
more in Paris than I did, perfecting my French, I could 
have run back to England in short time and at small 
cost.) 

On one of my visits with Lord Russell I presumptu- 
ously brought the conversation to bear on the Trent 
Affair, boldly asking him why he had not stated to 
Parliament the grounds on which Seward had returned 
Messrs. Mason and Slidell, summed up in the end of his 
letter. Lord Russell said that this letter, like all Sew- 
ard's communications, was so long and involved that 



58 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

he could not have read it to Parliament. This did not 
seem to be quite a satisfactory answer, but I did not 
press the question further. The Trent Affair was in 
short as follows : 

During the early days of the Civil War Captain 
Charles Wilkes of the United States Navy, in command 
of the San Jacinto, a United States war vessel, took off 
from the Trent (a British steamer running between 
neutral ports) Messrs. Mason and Slidell, two Confeder- 
ate envoys sent out respectively to England and France, 
with their secretaries. It was done without any author- 
ity from or knowledge on the part of the United States 
Government, but under the principle always contended 
for as legal by England up to the very moment that the 
capture of these gentlemen became known in London. 
The British Government, however, Lord John Russell 
representing it in the House of Commons, demanded, 
in conjunction with Lord Palmerston, under threat of 
war, the immediate return of Mason and Slidell. We 
had always contended that the English principle was 
wrong, and one of the issues of the War of 1812 against 
Great Britain was on this very subject. 

At the end of Seward's letter he took the stand that 
we willingly surrendered these gentlemen on the ground 
that by England's demand she "disavows" her old 
claim of the right to do the same thing and "assumes 
now as her own" the ground on which we always stood. 
Had the dozen lines of Seward's letter, showing the why, 
been read by Lord John in Parliament, or their substance 
stated, it would have helped to allay the ill-feeling that 
naturally came from our being made to appear in the 
eyes of Europe as frightened into surrendering those 
men, instead of having achieved a victory thereby for 
our own principles. I think, however, this climax to a 



THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT 59 

far too long and elaborate letter may have escaped Lord 
John's attention, as it has that of some historians. 

Lady Russell wants to substitute "Britannia" or 
"British Isles" as the name for "England," and "Co- 
lumbia" for the "United States of America." In a note 
to me she says: "England is, properly speaking, only 
one portion of Britannia and hence arise confusion and 
awkwardness in speech and writing. Depend upon it, 
when you and I have peaceably brought about these 
weighty revolutions, there will be an end of all the 
bickerings, bitterness, and broils which have disturbed 
the mother and daughter countries under their old 
names!" 

During my stay in London there had been much talk 
about Moody and Sankey, who had recently come to 
England, as to their influence for good and the after 
effects of such revivals. The general opinion seemed to 
be here, as it was in America, that while a few were 
permanently improved, who might be called the sur- 
vivals of the revivals, many were only emotionally 
carried away and soon went back into old ruts, and 
with some individuals it might be said, the last state of 
that man was worse than the first. 

There were also echoes of the Tichborne "claimant." 
Sir Roger Charles Tichborne was supposed to have been 
lost at sea, and a man from Australia declared that he 
was the rightful Sir Roger and claimed the baronetcy 
and estates worth about $120,000 a year. He got much 
sympathy from the common people in Great Britain 
because he was a rough person, and if he was not the 
true Sir Roger was the son of a butcher. It was a curious 
mixture of mind. If he had been the original Sir Roger, 
he was an aristocrat, but if he was this son of a butcher, 
he was n't the rightful claimant. His original claims had 



60 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

been settled adversely to him three years before, but 
he and some of his witnesses had been tried for perjury 
last year and convicted, and this longest trial known in 
England still remained in the public mind, especially 
as attempts were being made to secure the pardon of the 
claimant and his witnesses. 

General C. R. Schenck, our United States Minister 
to London, was several times mentioned, but always 
and only as having taught the English our American 
card game of poker, which had been taken up as the 
great gambling pursuit of the fast set and by others for 
amusement at small stakes. 

The London post-office has been a marvelous surprise. 
Sir John Kennaway told me that letters would be car- 
ried about as quickly by mail as by special messenger, 
and this I found to be true. To notes that I posted in a 
"station" in a small store near my lodgings in the early 
forenoon to persons even two or three miles away, I 
often got replies on the same afternoon and not in- 
frequently in the middle of the afternoon, incredible as 
it may seem to one used to our mails. The London post- 
office has many of these small stations where stamps, 
money orders, and postal cards can be bought and mail 
weighed. When posted in these stations, the stamps are 
immediately canceled, the letters sorted and made ready 
for the first letter carriers that come along, instead of 
lying idle in a letter box for one, two, or three hours and 
then taken to a central office to be assorted and later 
sent out for delivery, often traveling, metaphorically 
speaking, down one spoke of the wheel to be carried out 
on a parallel spoke, instead of being taken right across, 
without delay, as in London. 

I have omitted one important incident which I wit- 
nessed in Parliament. Sir William Vernon Harcourt, in 



DISRAELI AND THE TORY PARTY 61 

reply to one of Disraeli's speeches, quoted from one of 
the latter's works showing that Disraeli had changed 
his views. Disraeli disappeared into the library, and 
soon afterwards returned bringing a copy of the book 
and read an extract which did not quite sustain Har- 
court's statement. It happened that the very next time 
I went to the House of Commons, I think it was the 
following day or later the same day after dinner, Sir 
William Vernon Harcourt got up and read from the first 
edition of the same work, which fully sustained his quo- 
tation, and then showed that Disraeli had read from 
a late edition in which he had amended the statement, 
and intimated that Disraeli must have well known of the 
amendment and was trying to mislead the House. 

This would have been enough to smash the reputa- 
tion of any ordinary Englishman. I looked to see him 
fall "down and give up the ghost" and to behold the 
young men arise and carry him out; but not at all. 
Disraeli only made some amusing remarks and the whole 
matter passed off like drops of water from a duck's 
back. The truth is, from what I learn, that Disraeli, 
while he has many charming qualities and is very true 
to his friends, is not really taken into the inner circles of 
the Tory Party, but is considered by them more as an 
adroit barrister who can represent their side in Parlia- 
ment than as one of themselves. 

(A story was privately circulated in 1 England, which 
came to my ears and has recently been published, 1 that 
Disraeli wrote a beseeching letter to Sir Robert Peel 
asking for an appointment in his government and soon 
afterwards denied in Parliament in the most explicit 
language that he had ever asked for anything of the 
sort. Sir Robert, though Disraeli had been attacking him 

1 See George Earle Buckle's Life of Disraeli. 



62 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

in rather an annoying way, did not divulge the begging 
letter. I was recently told by two eminent authorities, 
one a Liberal and the other a Tory, who were in a posi- 
tion to know, that Sir Robert had this letter in his 
pocket when Disraeli made the denial, and hesitated 
for a few moments whether to read the letter or not and 
that Disraeli had banked on Sir Robert's clemency. 
Another story I have heard is that at the moment Sir 
Robert could not find the letter and for that reason let 
the matter pass.) 



CHAPTER IV 

ALTHORP HOUSE: EARL SPENCER'S VIA WARWICK 
AND BIRMINGHAM 

Wednesday, August 4 

This morning I left London for a series of visits at great 

country houses. 

Arrived at the Warwick Arms, Warwick. Put on my 
walking shoes, strolled about the town, and then started 
for Guy's Cliff. Saw Guy's Cave and the monument to 
Giles, Baron of Cornwall, slain here in 1312 " by barons 
as lawless as himself." At the Cliff the family were at 
home, so I was not admitted. Walked close to the castle 
on the other side of the Avon and visited the old mill. 

Thursday, August 5 

Walked to Warwick Castle and got there before the 
crowd, so I saw things pretty much by myself. I might 
easily have got a letter of introduction to the family 
from some of my English friends, but have never asked 
for any introductions. I was surprised at the excellence 
of the collection of pictures by many great masters. 
Walked from there to Kenilworth, where I lunched at 
the Queen's Arms. I was enchanted with the old ruins 
and could hardly tear myself away. I climbed over the 
wall and went out by the old passage by which the Earl 
of Leicester and Queen Elizabeth came in to the castle 
nearly three hundred years ago. The romance of Amy 
Robsart lent wonderful pathos to the whole scene. The 
old way was closed by piles of ruins, and hard climbing 
was necessary, but I was too much worked up to mind 
that. 



64 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

On arriving at Warwick yesterday I found a letter 
from my good and faithful friend Rawlins to a Mr. 
Lloyd, of the Priory at Warwick, which I delivered that 
evening, and on returning to my hotel to-day I found a 
note from Mr. Lloyd asking me to dine at the Priory. 
It was thirty minutes after his dinner hour and I was not 
dressed, when I got the invitation. 

I found also an invitation from Sir John Kennaway 
to visit him at his splendid castle at Ottery St. Mary, 
Devonshire, which I cannot accept on account of other 
engagements I have already made, and one from Lord 
Coleridge of which I can avail myself. 

Called at the Priory in the evening. It was magnifi- 
cent and old with a superb great hall and galleries 
about. There was Prince Rupert's bed and Queen 
Elizabeth's stairs. The hall opened up through three 
stories and was almost all in dark oak wainscoting, with 
many family pictures and armor, swords, and shields 
about. The family were one and all very hospitable, 
and I had a delightful and romantic evening in this his- 
toric house. Ghost stories were told, but none of them 
very convincing or first hand, though all related to the 
house and its past owners. Talk drifts on spiritualism, 
which is receiving much attention in Great Britain. 

Friday, August 6 

Walked to Stratf ord-on-Avon, eight miles, under heavy, 
low clouds with occasional rain. To-day, Friday, was 
market day. The market carts were about and wares 
spread on the ground in the middle of the main street. 
I went, of course, to Shakespeare's house and visited his 
tomb, passing on the way the school where he learned to 
read and write. The memorials and curiosities were 
many, but not a few of doubtful authenticity; in fact, 



WARWICK 65 

there seemed to be some dispute about everything, even 
as to whether Shakespeare was Shakespeare or Bacon, 
or Bacon was Shakespeare. 

Returned to Warwick by train after dinner and went 
over the old "Leyces Ter" Hospital. Parts of the gate- 
way are very ancient, said to be of the seventh or eighth 
century. Saw some worsted needlework of Amy Rob- 
sart's, claimed to be genuine. It was very touching to 
think of her working on it in her expectation of a happy 
meeting with the Earl just before her tragic ending. 
Saw several autographs of Dudley, Earl of Leyces Ter, 
spelt as is the hospital. 

Saturday, August 7 

Went to the morning service at Leyces Ter Hospital be- 
fore breakfast. It was quite appealing. There were eight 
old soldiers who responded with so much earnestness 
and good-will that it was a lesson for us Episcopalians, 
even of the Church of the Advent, where responses were 
much better than elsewhere in Boston. These services 
are held twice a day, day after day, with rarely any 
strangers present. It quite stirred one's heart and made 
it worth while getting up early for this service, held in 
the old chapel over the still older gateway. The serv- 
ices were read from a prayer book given by Leicester. 
The devotion of these old men, their close attention, and 
their full, manly voices, with so often no one but their 
Maker to hear them, I shall not soon forget. 

Left Warwick for Birmingham and delivered a letter 
given me by Mr. Ferguson to a Mr. Chance of this 
city; but as chance would have it, he was out of town. 
Smalley had promised to get me some letters to the 
leading manufacturers of Birmingham, Manchester, 
and elsewhere, but he must have forgotten his promise, 



66 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

for I have received none. Merely seeing pigs of iron go 
into one end of a machine and come out in knives, forks, 
spoons, bedsteads, or electroplated silverware, etc., at 
the other, is not half as educational as a few moments' 
talk on the management of the works, the methods of 
economy, and the labor questions, with the practical 
manufacturer and with some of his workmen them- 
selves. 

Walked about the town in a hard rain for an hour or 
so. The people in general looked less earnestly intent 
and careworn than our working people at home. Yet I 
should say they were hardly as healthy. There was a 
great prevalence of drunkenness, and skin diseases seem 
not uncommon; at least they were obvious. The few 
healthiest were fine specimens of human nature, but I 
hoped to see both in country and in town life, among the 
unprivileged classes of England, more strong bodies and 
ruddy cheeks than I have seen yet. It may be that the 
very healthfulness of the climate tempts people to its 
abuse. If this is so it is something of a compensation for 
our less favorable conditions. 

I read Harrington's speech on the proceedings of the 
Government, which is manly and straightforward, and 
then "Dizzy's" answer, which, to me, seemed to show a 
great mastery, not of abstract style nor solid worth, but 
of just the sort of oratory to engage the attention and 
carry along the inert thought of the House to his side. 
In substance it seemed to me to consist of glittering 
generalities and catching phrases. I wished I could have 
heard both these speeches. 

Sunday, August 8 

St. Philip's in the morning. Choral service. The text of 

the sermon was. "And does Job serve the Lord for 



BIRMINGHAM 67 

naught." It was well arranged, spoken in rich, melodious 
tones, and so put as not to arouse any one's conscience 
beyond the point of good-breeding and self-content. 
The clergyman certainly is not getting hold of the peo- 
ple. I walked through the city and saw miles of signs 
of continuous, heart-breaking poverty. On this day, 
Sunday, drinking-shops and tobacco stores were open; 
the former in great numbers. All other "places of amuse- 
ment" were shut; no picture galleries were open, no 
libraries. You could not send a telegram even in case 
of illness or death, and trains were few and there were no 
mails. 

The houses were mostly in three stories, though some 
of only two. I saw some partly built which had only the 
thickness of one brick between the houses and of only 
two bricks in front and rear. The bricks, however, were 
five inches broad instead of our narrow ones; but it was 
at best very flimsy construction. (The building laws 
of England have been very much improved since, as are 
the dwelling conditions for the poor in all its cities.) 

Monday, August 9 

I got from the landlady of the Inn a card to the Elking- 
ton Silversmiths, Electroplaters, and Bronze Founders, 
the largest manufacturers of the sort in the world. I 
told these people that I was an American studying the 
conditions in England, and they gave me cards to Mc- 
Callum & Hodson, Papier Mache, Pearl, and Japan 
Goods; to Gillott's Pen Works; and, what is very hard 
to get, a letter to Taylor's Pin Works. I also visited a 
factory for making shoe pegs. The process of making 
these pegs was interesting and instructive. They were 
cut out roughly by machinery and then put in an im- 
mense caldron and jostled back and forth and up and 



68 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

down till they became smooth and polished. Were this 
smoothing and polishing done to each peg separately, it 
would make their cost prohibitive. I said to the man 
who showed me about, "Isn't that something like a 
large family where the children rub off each other's 
rough corners?" He smiled and said, "It is." I saw to- 
day all but the pin works, which I shall visit to-morrow. 
At the pen works the hands were paid by the piece. The 
man showing me about was unwilling to tell what the 
laborers were paid or earn and avoided answering my 
other questions. Some of the laborers looked tired and 
unhealthy, but there were enough contented, well, and 
strong hands, both men and women, to make one believe 
that with temperance, fair amount of industry, and 
proper preparation of their food at home, they might 
have been on the average much better off than they 
were; indeed, I was told that almost all those who were 
temperate and saving did pretty well and a few became 
capitalists themselves. This I heard from both employer 
and employee. Still the share of these laborers in pro- 
duction is pretty small. 

Tuesday ', August 10 

I started for Althorp House, leaving the "Hen and 
Chickens" Hotel, Birmingham, where I had been stay- 
ing, not without a feeling of satisfaction, for it was not as 
cheap as it was bad, or, as Longfellow said of a hotel 
called "The Raven," "The bird has a very foul nest and 
a very, very long bill." I traveled second-class, as usual, 
to Northampton. It was a closely built town, rather old 
and dirty, with a little admixture of modern improve- 
ment. I hired the best-looking cab at the station, a 
shabby four-wheeler, with a horse that was in keeping 
with the old trap behind him. I made a bargain for 



ALTHORP HOUSE 69 

seven shillings to drive to Earl Spencer's, about seven 
miles away. The drive was over a good road with rather 
quiet English scenery on either side. 

One notices here, and almost everywhere in England 
that I have been, except in the suburbs of the cities, that 
the houses are few and far between — not scattered 
along the road as the farm buildings are with us. Some- 
times there is not a dwelling-house in sight, and yet the 
fields about are all ploughed or planted, or are well-kept 
pasture lands. I drove up to the house about four in the 
afternoon. 

Althorp House has no architectural beauty or preten- 
sions. It is plain, but large, and placed low to the ground, 
as are almost all English houses. It is built of brick, 
painted, and does not look as picturesque as the stables, 
which are of stone. The house is so well proportioned 
that one does not take in at first glance from the out- 
side its great size, with its magnificent ballroom, its 
long picture galleries, spacious libraries, and broad, 
grand stairs. But on entering and going to my room 
and asking questions, I soon perceived it. At the door 
I was met by the butler who, when I gave my name, 
said he was awaiting me, and ordered my "luggage" to 
be carried up. I was to have the "Mignard" room. 

The butler said that Lord and Lady Spencer were out 
on the cricket ground and that "his Lordship" had left 
word for me to come there if 1 liked. I was put in charge 
of a quiet young manservant or valet who showed me to 
my room where soon my luggage was brought up and 
unstrapped, hot water appeared, and I was asked if I 
wished anything else. I washed and got ready — but 
what clothes should I wear? I had on a rough Scottish 
suit of mixed color, while in my trunk I had nicer clothes 
that I had worn in town. I had never heard what was 



70 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

worn in the country, but I concluded to wear what I 
thought was the most sensible thing, and, at all events, 
to avoid being overdressed. So I kept on my rough 
things, put on my thick shoes, and donned my cloth hat. 
On coming downstairs I met Lord Charles Bruce, Lord 
Spencer's brother-in-law, and to my satisfaction, he had 
on clothes very much like my own in general appearance 
and cut, and he had also a soft cloth hat. He took me 
out to the cricket ground, a beautiful, level, grassy spot 
of oval shape, with fine old trees on the margin, contain- 
ing about eight acres or more of well-rolled turf. The 
game was over and all the household had gone to the 
kennels, so we went on in a path between tall trees till 
we came up with the party. Spencer had on a cricket 
suit with a red handkerchief tied about his neck and a 
flannel shirt. Countess Spencer was plainly dressed and 
as handsome and charming as usual. 

In the kennels there were about one hundred and fifty 
dogs. The keepers said that they knew each hound by 
name. On going to my room to get ready for dinner 
I found that my luggage had all been unpacked, and 
my things neatly put away, well and conveniently ar- 
ranged in drawers, on the dressing-table or the wash- 
stand. I found laid out my dress suit, a clean shirt, white 
tie, handkerchief, my evening shoes, and black silk 
stockings. Hot water was at hand, and on the writing- 
table were paper, pens, ink, wax, and a card of the de- 
parture and arrival of mails. The room was high and 
the walls covered with portraits of distinguished persons 
mostly by the celebrated French painter Mignard. 
There was one tall window looking out upon a terrace, 
well-kept flower gardens, and more distant grove and 
park. The room was the one King William IV slept in 
and Spencer said the bed was the one he used. On com- 



CONSIDERATION FOR STRANGERS 71 

ing down to dinner I found the curtains all drawn and 
candles lighted, though at eight o'clock, the hour for 
dinner, it was still plain daylight with sun shining 
brightly out of doors. The waiters were dressed in a 
quiet sort of livery; their hair was not powdered. At 
dinner were Lady Charles Bruce, Lady Clifden, sisters 
of Lady Spencer, Lady Spencer, Lord Charles Bruce, and 
Lord Spencer. I took in Lady Spencer, Spencer took in 
Lady Charles, and Lord Charles, Lady Clifden. After 
dinner the ladies went out leaving the men behind. 

The conversation during dinner and in the evening was 
light and agreeable and such as to put a stranger per- 
fectly at his ease. They did not talk, as people so often 
do before strangers, about their personal friends, speak- 
ing of "Will" and "John" and "Susan" and "Jane," 
or using nicknames, which would mean nothing to the 
stranger, but if they did speak of friends at all, they 
spoke in such a way that I was able to understand to 
whom they referred. Consideration and good manners 
here are second nature, not forced or laid aside on famil- 
iarity; nor is there anything formal or unnatural. All 
retired about eleven o'clock. Breakfast is when we like 
in the morning. I decided to have mine with Spencer 
and Lord Charles at half-past nine. The ladies are to 
breakfast in their rooms. 

As we retired candles were handed to us and we said 
good-night on the broad hall stairs. In my room I found 
my clothes that I had worn during the day taken away 
and my night things laid out for me, and the shutters 
fastened to, the curtains drawn, and the window closed. 
It is so strange that in this country of fresh air they so 
universally close the windows at night. I can understand 
their wanting the curtains drawn as the dawn breaks so 
early, but I managed to open my window and arranged 



72 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

the curtain so as to let the air in and yet keep the light 
out. By the way, what we call window "shades," they 
call "blinds"; though we use the term Venetian "blinds" 
in the English sense; what we call "blinds," which in 
England are only on the inside and are without slats, 
they call "shutters." 

Wednesday, August 11 

I was awake at eight and three quarters or a quarter 
"to" nine, as they say, instead of our quarter "of" nine. 
The young valet, the same who always waits on me, 
brought my clothes all brushed and folded, and shoes I 
had worn the day before, blacked. He drew the curtains 
fully aside, spread open the shutters, brought in hot 
water, prepared a large cold bath in a movable bath- 
tub, — for there are no bathrooms with set tubs in 
the house, — put my washstand in order, folded up the 
towels that were sufficiently clean and put out some 
fresh ones, laid out a clean shirt and collar, and took 
away my things worn the evening before. 

All this was done quietly and quickly, while I was 
in bed, though without haste. On asking about the 
weather, he replied, "It's a fine day." Out of my win- 
dow I saw three or four men working on the flower beds, 
and what beautiful flowers they were, with green shrubs 
or small evergreens to set them off! Breakfast con- 
sisted of coffee, tea, fresh eggs, with "Tuesday, August 
10," written on them, fish, chops, orange marmalade, etc. 
All was very informal, and we mostly waited on our- 
selves, even getting up to get things from the side 
table. 

9 Spencer was to go to Northampton to sit as judge in a 
county court. Many of the small cases are decided, not 
before a regular court with a judge, but before a tribunal 



LORD SPENCER AS COUNTY JUDGE 73 

of the Lord of the Manor and some of the local magis- 
trates, aided by a young barrister. There are no formal 
papers signed or what we technically call "pleadings," 
but they hear the story of each party in person un- 
represented by barristers or solicitors, and decide on 
general principles without much pretense at legal tech- 
nicality. This proceeding settles many a small ques- 
tion at little or no cost to the parties, while the more 
complicated ones, or those involving larger amounts, 
or such as either party wishes to appeal, are taken to 
a regular court. 

i Spencer serves without pay and for no political ad- 
vantage, and certainly not for the sake of renown in such 
small cases in a country town. I wonder how many a 
Cleon or Ben Butler would do as much for the people 
from a sense of duty alone? 

Lord Charles spent the morning with me in the won- 
derful library. The catalogue was written alphabeti- 
cally in small parchment-bound books. Numbers were 
added to the names and these numbers referred to a 
large book giving the locations, so that in changing the 
location of a book it was only necessary to change the 
number of the shelf in the latter book, and the original 
catalogue remained untouched. 

I saw Dr. Johnson's copy of the last edition of his 
dictionary that was published during his lifetime, with 
notes in his own handwriting. In the room of treasures 
I saw some of the very earliest specimens of block print- 
ing before movable type had been invented, and some 
of the old blocks themselves. Several of these were 
on Bible subjects for teaching the illiterate by pictures. 
In this room I also saw the first edition of the first book 
ever printed. We looked over many old German and 
Italian books, examining the paper and type. Cicero 



74 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

was the first classic ever printed. This library has the 
best collection of block printing and early books any- 
where in the world with the exception of the British 
Museum. (The next spring, when going over the old 
Library in Milan, they showed me a rare early book and 
said there is only one other copy in the world, and I re- 
plied, "Yes, and I saw it at Althorp House." To this 
the librarian added, "If you have seen that collection 
we have very little to show you." Some years after- 
wards Lord S. sold all this rare collection in order to 
make up for heavy losses caused by a dishonest agent. 
It was bought as a whole by Mrs. Ryland and made 
a part of the Ryland Public Library at Manchester, 
England, and is kept all together under the title of the 
"Althorp Collection.") 

There I saw the earliest edition of Shakespeare printed 
soon after his death under the direction of the very 
players he had taught by mouth. They and Ben Jonson 
did not hesitate to ascribe the plays to Shakespeare in 
the most open terms. Ben Jonson's comment in his 
well-known poem on the portrait of Shakespeare also 
appears in this edition. When one sees Ben Jonson's 
admiration of Shakespeare, a person whom he met so 
frequently and with whom he conversed so often, it 
seems incredible that he should have believed him to be 
the author of these great works unless he, Shakespeare, 
had the mental capacity and showed it in his conversa- 
tion; and then, too, we must remember that many of 
these plays were not fully written out when they were 
first acted, but Shakespeare, in the presence of his 
actors and friends, would often make suggestions and 
alterations, and if he was capable of that he was capable 
of writing the first drafts. It is true Jonson says that 
he (S.) knew "little Latin and less Greek," but we must 



THE ENGLISH DOMESTIC SYSTEM 75 

remember that Jonson was a marvelous scholar and 
he would have said the same of almost any Harvard 
graduate who had elected the classics — if we except the 
high honor men — and that the historical plays are 
but adaptations of well-known English literature and 
did not require original research. However, I cannot 
enter deeply into the argument, but when we actually 
saw the first edition with the portrait of Shakespeare and 
Ben Jonson's reference to it, it was far more convincing 
than merely reading of it in dissertations. 

In the afternoon Lord Charles and I set up the lawn 
tennis. It involved pretty hard work and a good deal 
of stooping in marking off the lines with whitewash by 
means of a brush and long strings. Countess S. said she 
was sorry to have us work so long and tediously, but 
they had no servants at hand who could do it. This 
is another illustration of the English domestic system. 
There were standing about an abundance, both out- 
doors and in, of men quite capable of doing this work; 
but not one was found, within whose duty it would lie. 
Neither the gardener nor the footmen nor the valets 
nor the bootblacks nor, of course, the maids would 
help. Our hostess knew this so well that she did not 
even ask them, for it would have meant point-blank 
refusal. They had one man-of -all-work for such odd 
jobs, but he was away in a distant part of the enormous 
grounds, somewhere, perhaps, in the 27,000 acres 
Spencer is reputed to own. 

I played a game with Lady Spencer, and getting too 
much ahead, I left one half of her court for her to tend 
while I tended the whole of mine; with this advantage 
she beat me. I played three close sets with Lord Charles 
and was beaten in two out of three. 



76 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Thursday, August 12 

The morning was spent largely over the piano. Lord 
Charles, who had made a study of musical theory and 
composition, explained many interesting musical laws 
to me and played very agreeably. After that we ad- 
journed again to the treasure room of the library to 
spend a couple of engrossing hours over some valuable 
books. In trying to open one of the windows I broke a 
pane of glass. I feared that it might injure the valuable 
treasures, but they assured me that it would not. 

In the afternoon went over to a chapel some distance 
off where were the Spencer tombs and monuments. In 
going through the fields Lady Spencer and Lady Clif- 
den did not hesitate to walk through a herd of black 
oxen and were not at all troubled as the lazy brutes 
lowered their heads and swayed their large horns as 
they sullenly turned off the path. At the further gate 
we met Spencer who had been waiting for us, and there 
the ladies turned to walk back again alone through this 
drove. I complimented them on their courage, but 
they said that there was no danger and that they were 
used to the cattle. 

In the chapel Lord Spencer showed me the tomb- 
stone of the Washingtons with the family coat of arms 
on it. The design was a shield with three stars above 
and three horizontal stripes below. These stars and 
stripes led Spencer to think that Washington had his 
coat of arms adopted, with a slight change, for the de- 
sign of the American flag and shield. This did not seem 
consistent with Washington's character and above all 
with his modesty. Spencer said he had shown Charles 
Sumner the same, with the same comment. On getting 
back Spencer and I looked up the only American his- 
tories I could find in the library, but no light was thrown 



ENGLISH VOICES 77 

on the subject. (On returning to America I found a 
complete account of the adoption of the flag, with which 
Washington seems to have had nothing to do.) 

There were in the house the two children of Lady 
Clifden, her son (the present Viscount Clifden), and a 
daughter, called Lady Lilah. They were about thir- 
teen and fifteen, but did not appear at table except at 
lunch. I noticed that the governess carefully corrected 
the pronunciation of the Clifden children and modu- 
lated their speech. I had always remarked on the fine 
voices the English had, but presumed it was a product 
of the climate. I asked about this and they told me that 
all the well-to-do English children were carefully taught 
to speak, almost as people are taught to sing, and to 
avoid all nasal or harsh utterances. With us in America 
children as a rule have been allowed to talk with little 
or no correction of this sort for fear of making them 
artificial or unnatural. As a matter of fact, they usually 
imitate people and are quite as artificial and unnatural 
in a bad way as they might be made natural, by second 
nature, in a good way. Every afternoon we had the 
tea now so fashionable all over England. It consisted 
of tea, very hot, bread and butter, cut very thin, and a 
few light cakes. It was very refreshing and helped one 
amazingly till eight o'clock, yet without spoiling the 
appetite for dinner. The lunch hour was two. 

Friday, August 13 

Lord Spencer at breakfast asked me if I would like to 
ride with him to visit some farms. " Riding " in England 
always means on horseback, and "driving," in a car- 
riage. He gave me a very handsome mount, a really 
splendid horse. We rode mostly through the fields or 
country lanes and had to open many gates. Spencer, 



18 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

a noted horseman and huntsman, complimented me on 
my bringing the horse to the gates and opening them. 
He is a splendid manager of horses I readily see. I 
wondered how far his leaning a good deal forward, with 
back curved and rather short stirrups with knees bent, 
helped him. This very likely gives him power and con- 
trol in rough riding. 

We met a stranger, apparently a well-to-do farmer, 
with a broad, ruddy face and side whiskers, sitting 
erect on his saddle, with a self-confident air. Spencer 
asked him about his horse, if it were not such and such a 
one, and inquired as to how it went. The man at first 
was a little gruff and almost rude, as if he thought that 
the person addressing him had no right to be so familiar. 
Another horseman coming up addressed Spencer by 
his title. Immediately the poor farmer was in consterna- 
tion. He blushed to the roots of his hair, stammered, 
and apologized; and yet he really had neither said nor 
done anything which was not perfectly proper; but such 
is the deference, amounting almost to obsequiousness, 
ingrained into the English people for the nobility. 

The pastoral views were charming. The wheat was 
not yet harvested, but was yellow and made a striking 
contrast to the green grass of the pasture lands and the 
brown of the freshly ploughed fields. The lowlands 
were soggy from recent rains ; all the work of St. Swithun ! 
In the early afternoon I made a small sketch of the 
house in black and white. Spencer recommended my 
taking up colors as so much more rich and interesting. 

This afternoon Lady Spencer invited me into her 
sanctum sanctorum, a prettily furnished den on the first 
floor. The door to it was so successfully concealed in the 
paneling on the side of the great stairs that I had not 
known of its existence. She showed me the many con- 



LORD AND LADY SPENCER 79 

veniences of her writing-table, the pretty furniture and 
settings, and we had an hour's delightful chat on friends 
and leaders in English society and on books and authors. 

I forgot to say that on the previous Thursday we 
played some games of "go bang," a game something 
like the reverse of checkers. Lady Clifden beat Lady 
Spencer, I beat Lady Clifden, and Lady Spencer beat 
me, a result very like the celebrated championship at 
cricket between Harrow, Eton, and Winchester. One 
year when Eton beat Harrow with an inning to spare, 
Harrow beat Winchester also with an inning to spare, 
and then, when Winchester came to play Eton, to 
everybody's surprise it won also with an inning to spare. 

The Spencers are evidently very fond of each other, 
kind and considerate, and plan to be much together 
in their daily arrangements. (On the death of Lady 
Spencer I received a letter dated the 9th of December, 
1903, from the Earl in reply to one of sympathy from 
me, saying: "Yours is the third letter which I have re- 
ceived in a week from your country, and I assure you 
that it touches me much to know that my good friends 
in the United States valued my beloved wife's character 
and charm and sympathize with me in my great sorrow. 
It is a terrible thought that my constant helpmate and 
adviser for over forty -five years has left me and that I 
have to face the world alone without her. But I must 
face it. I must be thankful for long and blessed years of 
happiness and peace." It truly seemed as if his desire 
for life and active work had departed with her, for he 
did not accomplish much after her death. He outlived 
her seven years.) 

During lunch the Spencers were discussing some plans 
for altering Althorp House. There was one that I pre- 
ferred, for which I spoke favorably and hoped they 



80 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

would adopt in preference to the others. It showed up 
the grand stairs, while the two other plans gave less 
space from which to see them. In the afternoon Lord 
and Lady Charles Bruce left us. 

After dinner, in the evening, Lady Spencer and I 
played two games of "go bang," one of which lasted 
over two hours, as each of us tried hard to win, Lady 
Spencer having beaten me in the firstjgame. We did 
not get through till a quarter to one, when at last, on 
account of the lateness of the hour, I gave the game 
away. I was for stopping sooner, but Lady S. was for 
having it out if possible. Poor Spencer sat up all the 
time and was very sleepy, but was unwilling to retire 
and yet was most polite and kind. I felt awkward at 
having kept him up so late. 

During this visit, though warned by my father to use 
titles as little as possible, I made an unnecessary use 
of one in speaking to Lady Clifden. I saw she fairly 
cringed, so I learned my lesson. 

Saturday, August 14 

In the afternoon Lady Spencer left in company with 
her sister Lady Clifden and the two children for the up 
train and I half an hour or so later for the down train, 
"down" in this case means north-bound and "up" 
south for London. (Lady Clifden was married, a second 
time, soon after this and may have been going to Lon- 
don with her sister for her trousseau.) 

I was sorry to leave where they had been so kind and 
where I had enjoyed the visit so much, but I must not 
outstay my welcome. I had got to have a feeling of real 
affection for Spencer, as for a kind and generous elder 
brother. This afternoon as the ladies were departing I 
noticed that he had tears in his eyes. Something had 



PICTURES AT ALTHORP HOUSE 81 

happened which moved him very much, I could only- 
guess what. He has no children, and it may be that 
saying good-bye to his sister-in-law's children, one of 
them a boy and heir to the Clifden title and estates, 
made him feel his own deprivation. I was sorry, too, 
to leave the house with its wonderful library and its 
five hundred beautiful oil paintings, and my own room 
with its portrait of Moliere by Largilliere, 1656-1746; 
Seigneur de Saint-Evremond and Hortense Mamini, 
"Duchesse Mazarin," by Godfrey Kneller, 1648- 
1723; Louis XIV; Colbert; Julie d'Argennes; Mile, 
de l'Enclos; Anne of Austria, "Soror, mater, filia, et 
conjux regum"; Lucy Barlow, alias Walter; Henrietta 
of Orleans; Madame de Montespan as Diana; and Marie 
Angelique de Roussille, Duchesse de Fontanges, all by 
Mignard, 1610-95. In the gallery is said to be the 
best private collection in the world of portraits by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds. There were also some portraits by 
Van Dyck and a very beautiful Madonna by Raphael. 
Lord Spencer sent me to the station in an Irish jaunt- 
ing car, I perched on one side, over the wheels, and my 
baggage balancing me on the other. He had picked 
this up when he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 
1868 and 1874. One felt the motion of the horse a good 
deal, and going round curves one had to hold on to the 
back of the seat; but it went rolling and jouncing along 
very fast and seemed to be easy on the horse. 



CHAPTER V 
LORD YOUNG'S VIA YORK AND EDINBURGH 

I took the train for York and stopped a few hours at 
Peterboro to see the cathedral, one of the most im- 
portant Norman churches in England. The choir aisle 
has on one side the tomb of Queen Catherine of Aragon 
and on the opposite side the former burial-place of 
Mary, Queen of Scots, her body having been later re- 
moved to Westminster Abbey. The chimes were ring- 
ing. Inside I seemed to feel the sound more than hear it, 
and outside, the bells, even close to, were more mellow, 
soft, and harmonious than any I had ever heard before. 
In the streets the people were selling their goods, one 
fishmonger outcrying another or running down the 
quality of the other's fish. Arrived at York in the early 
evening. 

Sunday, August 15 

Attended morning service at the Cathedral. They 
were mending the organ so the choir sang without ac- 
companiment. The choir was of men and boys and is 
reputed to be the best now in England. I preferred it to 
the choir of the Temple. We had a full choral service. 
The pitch was perfectly kept, and as the beautiful 
chords died away among the arches, I fully realized my 
very dream of cathedral singing. How I can recall the 
notes all day long as the monotone of a response broke 
into a rich, harmonious chord or how the solemn chants 
were sung antiphonally, one side confirming what the 
other sang or adding to the thought ! It was the praise 
of God sung by His most perfect instrument, the hu- 



EDINBURGH 83 

man voice, cleared of its defects and artificialities — 
and all in one of His most beautiful temples. 

Edinburgh, Tuesday, August 17 

I was very much struck with the picturesqueness of 
the city on my arrival last evening. The castle, right 
across a park and close at hand and yet so high up, was 
but dimly marked against a cloud-flecked sky, and the 
few lights shining here and there with a full moon over 
the castle, so still and calm and steady between the 
flitting clouds, gave one the idea of feudal times and of 
deep mystery and unreality. It all looked so like a 
picture, and so quiet, that it made a great contrast to 
the street and the moving crowd of people nearer by; 
and altogether it gave me a new idea of how beautiful 
a city might be. In the new part the buildings were 
handsome and solid; in the old part, high and dirty. I 
saw one block seven stories high, besides attic and 
basement. 

I noticed a large number of recruits to the army in all 
the cities and read in the papers that the army and navy 
were both to be increased. In the evening the streets 
were crowded, and the people seemed to be jolly and 
the children played their games. There was a general 
air of neatness, cheerfulness, and good-will. A grand 
view of the city, the Firth, and the land between I 
got from the top of Nelson's Monument about four 
o'clock. 

I came across a wandering preacher standing on a 
light movable chair or stool. He was assisted in singing 
by a young man who sang in unison with him. The 
preacher read texts and short printed sermons while all 
the time the audience was attentive and quiet, although 
composed largely of rough-looking men. It was in the 



84 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

poor part of the city in the old town about eight o'clock 
in the evening. 

Wednesday, August 18 

After lunch drove to call on Lord Young who, when I 
met him in London, had made me promise that I would 
look him up on coming to Edinburgh. He has a superb 
house on Moray Place, but is now living in his country 
cottage about five miles from here on the shore of the 
Firth. I was lucky enough, however, to find him in his 
town house, though it was nominally closed. He asked 
me to come to dinner at his country house and I ac- 
cepted. "No dress suits, and everything informal." 
The life there is simple like our way of living at Man- 
chester. He does not keep up the formal servants of his 
town house. While he has a butler or valet and some 
maids, he himself brought me my hot water. He told me 
he has just visited the Duke of Argyll, and said that 
Inverary, where I am going soon, is the pleasantest 
place on earth, people and all. I missed the Duke of 
Argyll in London, but I have since received a letter from 
the Duchess asking me to visit them for a fortnight in 
September. Lord Young has fourteen children, of which 
number Lady Young speaks with pride. I met there a 
Miss Goldie, sister of the famous Cambridge University 
stroke oar, said to be the best there ever was in that 
University. Passed a pleasant evening and was invited 
to come to-morrow, an invitation I readily accepted. 

One of the daughters sang with a good voice, sweet 
tones, and a natural ear, but needed some cultivation. 
A beautiful sunset and exhilarating six-mile walk before 
dinner along the shore. Lord Young is noted for his 
keenness of intellect and yet is kindly. He is a smoker, 
but does not believe in smoking. He is said to be one of 



LORD YOUNG 85 

the best wits in Scotland and an eminent judge of more 
than ordinary ability among the able judges of Great 
Britain. I said, " Smoking must sometimes do good. It 
quiets the nerves." "Yes," said he, "it does quiet the 
nerves of a smoker." I thought that perhaps very near 
the truth. A beautiful moonlight drive back to Edin- 
burgh. 

Thursday, August 19 

After lunch went to 28 Moray Place. (They pronounce 
it Murray, as home is pronounced hume, and gold, 
gould.) The library and stairway were the handsomest 
private ones I have yet seen. There I met Lord Young, 
who is Lord Advocate of Scotland, his wife, and one 
daughter. They showed me over the house. Walked 
about the city with Lord Young, who pointed out Sir 
Walter Scott's house where most of the novels were 
written, now barristers' rooms. We went to see the 
National Gallery, but found it closed. Back of Lord 
Young's house in Moray Place there is a garden over- 
looking a steep dell. Several of the neighbors, but none 
else, have admission to it, and it makes a delightful 
private park. Drove to Silverknowe, Lord Young's 
cottage. Took a short walk with Young and was glad 
to have him say that he did not think the knowledge of 
Roman law was worth the expense of a year's study; 
for I had been considering taking a course at Oxford, 
Cambridge, or Germany in that subject, but hardly 
wished to give the time to it. I asked him if he thought 
the knowledge of the Roman law might not be useful in 
settling doubtful points which arise in our law. He said 
it had been useful to a certain extent, but that now it 
was a cake with all the plums taken out. He said that 
slavery and the social laws which made a large part of 



86 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

the Roman law, of course have no application nowadays, 
that New York and London probably had more com- 
merce and commercial questions in a year than Rome 
had in one hundred, and that the mode of establishing 
testaments was very clumsy, while their land was held 
by an entirely different system. He said he believed far 
too much has been made of the Roman law. His opinion 
is all the more valuable, as in Scotland they make a point 
of knowing and quoting the Civil or Roman law and he, 
himself, is well up in it. 

He spoke of Mayne's "Ancient Law," and thought it 
not worth reading, not because Mayne did not know his 
subject or did not write well, but because the subject 
itself was not a fruitful one. (I met Mr. Mayne at Sir 
William Vernon Harcourt's dinner in London and he is 
considered the best authority in the world on ancient 
law. Indeed, Mayne not only wrote the masterpiece on 
ancient law, but developed the important theorem in 
the history of law; that law is in the main the embodi- 
ment of the customs of peoples.) Lord Young approved 
of Stevens and Brougham highly. At dinner we talked 
of John Stuart Mill's writings. 

After the ladies retired I explained our caucus system 
of nominations in America. Lord Young told me several 
very amusing stories. One story told of Lord Young is 
this : As he was presiding over the trial of a very impor- 
tant case in which the water board was a party, there 
entered the court-room a stout man with a red nose and 
blurry eyes, who pushed his way forward to a conspicu- 
ous seat in the front. Lord Y. leaned over his desk and 
in an undertone asked a young barrister who that was 
coming into the room. The barrister replied, "He is a 
trustee of the water board, my lord." Lord Y. then said, 
"From his looks, I do not know of any one to whom I 



LORD YOUNG 87 

could more safely trust water." (I later heard the fol- 
lowing story: Lord Young chancing to meet Austin, the 
poet laureate, asked him what he was doing. Austin 
replied, " I am writing a few verses to keep the wolf from 
the door." Lord Young, quick as a flash, replied, "Do 
you read the verses to the wolf? " — a bit cruel consider- 
ing Austin's uncertain reputation, but Young knew him 
very well and their acquaintance would admit of chaff- 
ing.) Lord Young's humor was not biting or sarcastic. 
He made very firm friends and his relatives and in-laws 
liked him well. He complimented the best American wit 
as fine and delicate. In the evening there was family 
singing and they made me sing a negro song, hearing 
that I knew some. I selected "Stop that Knocking at 
the Door"; I also sang the Irish song, "I learned Both 
Readin' and Wroitin'." Passed a very pleasant social 
evening and have made, I think, some real friends in the 
family. They asked me to come again when they are to 
be in town and could entertain and present me to the 
Scottish Bar and social leaders. Lord Young gave me a 
copy of Mackenzie on Roman Law, writing his auto- 
graph in it. Lord Young, three of his daughters, and 
Miss Goldie walked with me part of the way back to 
Edinburgh, I going alone the rest of the distance. The 
moon was just past the full, and the sight as I approached 
could hardly be surpassed in any city anywhere, un- 
less at Athens. 



CHAPTER VI 
ROSSIE PRIORY: LORD KINNAIRD'S 

Saturday, August 21 

Left Edinburgh for Inchture where I found Lord Kin- 
naird's carriage waiting for me, and I drove to Rossie 
Priory by a very picturesque route. Met Lord and Lady 
Kinnaird in the study. Lord Kinnaird took me out for a 
stroll. He is interesting, communicative, and extremely 
kind. We had a most pleasant and varied talk. He 
showed me his gardens which he had planted and his 
rockery and artificial waterfall. The park was full of 
people whom he allows to come out from Dundee and 
roam all over it. He had swings put up for them and they 
made good use of all their privileges. 

Speaking of Plimsoll he said he could sympathize with 
him, for he himself had worked hard over a bill for 
improving the condition, health, and safety of miners, 
and though all the while men were dying from bad 
management which could have been prevented by legis- 
lation, yet it was ten years before he could get the bill 
passed, and that he, Lord Kinnaird, well knew the feel- 
ing when others would not take any interest in so im- 
portant a measure. 

Telling him of Lord Young's opinion of Roman law, 
Kinnaird said I might well trust it, for no one in Scotland 
knew better than he what was important in the study of 
law. At dinner we had Lord and Lady Kinnaird and a 
young man who is studying farming on the estate. Lady 
Kinnaird is much interested in geology and paleontol- 
ogy, about which we talked a little. 

Apropos of trusting people in order to bring out their 



ROSSIE PRIORY 89 

best, I explained our Harvard Dining-Hall Association 
system. When in the old, bare room of the association, 
which was a converted railroad station on Holmes 
Place, there was much noise and disorder, and some- 
times rolls of bread were thrown about. The question 
came as to allowing the association to use the new 
Memorial Hall with its fine inside architecture, old por- 
traits, and stained-glass windows. I was then in my 
senior year in College and President Eliot consulted me. 
I told him I believed that with better surroundings the 
men would behave better and rise to the confidence 
placed in them. He said he believed so, too. I was ap- 
pointed the first president of the association on its going 
into Memorial Hall, the following year, being my first in 
the law school. Our predictions proved true. No dam- 
age has ever been done to pictures, stained glass, or 
architecture. 

Sunday, August 22 

Early service in the chapel of the Abbey at 8.15 after 
which we had breakfast at 9.30. Walked alone until the 
second service at quarter-past eleven. After lunch 
looked at some of the pictures in the Priory. Many of 
them are by old masters such as Raphael, Michael 
Angelo, Van Dyck, and Velasquez, and some held to be 
unusually good specimens. There are also antique busts 
and altars from Italy. The old English families had a 
great opportunity to secure Italian works of art in the 
early part of the century when they could be got at 
reasonable prices. In the main corridor leading from 
the front door are some ancient mosaics of the best 
classical period brought with great care from near Rome. 
One of these is quite large and as beautiful as the mosaic 
of the Battle of Issus in the Vatican. Pictures, mosaics, 



90 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

and other antiques were bought abroad jointly by the 
Duke of Bedford and the father of the present Lord 
Kinnaird years ago. The collection was divided between 
them on their return to Great Britain. 

At the luncheon were all the grandchildren of Lord K. 
and his son-in-law Mr. Ogilvy. After lunch the children 
took me to see the fernery and set all the fountains 
playing. They showed me King James's bed, which is 
really very handsome, with carved and inlaid woods. 
Took a long walk with Lord Kinnaird and his grand- 
children. Visited the fruit gardens, where the cherries 
and gooseberries were under nets to protect them from 
the birds. The peaches and plums were either trained 
on the walls or were in greenhouses. The fruits will not 
otherwise ripen in this climate for want of sun. I saw 
figs growing under glass. I got to be great friends with 
the grandchildren. All these are the children of a daugh- 
ter, so none of them can inherit the title, which will go to 
his brother whom I met in London. 

Dinner was at 7.30. The Kinnairds are very religious 
and have three services on Sunday, but to-day there was 
no evening service, as the clergyman, Mr. Simmons, was 
unwell. They belong to the Church of England. They 
have morning and evening services on week days and all 
of these are in the chapel of the Abbey close by. Passed a 
quiet Sunday evening with pleasant and varied talk. 

Monday, August 23 • 

No early service this morning, as the chaplain was still 
under the weather. Drove with Lord K. and his son-in- 
law, Mr. Ogilvy, to Dundee. First we went to a sort of 
reform school. Lord K. is on the committee to carry out 
the work. They receive as an advance three shillings 
sixpence a week for each child from the National Gov- 



REFORM SCHOOL AT DUNDEE 91 

eminent. This money is collected from the parents of 
the children if they are able to pay; otherwise the money 
is made up from the poor-rates and, as I understand, 
then returned to the national treasury. 

The committee has authority by Act of Parliament to 
take in any boy or girl whose parents are so bad as likely 
to lead the children into crime or injure them through 
neglect. The child, either boy or girl, on being examined 
by a magistrate and found in that condition, can be kept 
in the school until sixteen years of age. In the school 
they do useful work such as making their own clothes, 
sewing jute bags, making scrubbing and blacking brushes, 
splitting wood, and the like. Of course they also study 
and play and the boys undergo military drill. If they 
behave well, they are given a chance to make money by 
their work, but this is not given them immediately; 
instead it is put in savings banks and they can draw at 
stated periods on the deposits when they come out. 
They are generally treated with kindness and the more 
trustworthy are allowed to go about the streets for 
certain purposes, and several are apprenticed to trades 
or to farmers. 

They got up a special drill on my behalf, and when it 
was over, the spirit and eagerness with which the boys 
resumed their work and their evident happiness showed 
the success of the scheme. Boys convicted of smaller 
first offenses are also allowed to be taken in, though they 
do not admit criminals. There are some 150 boys there 
and the school has worked well for thirteen years. The 
boys are said to be kind and helpful to one another. 
This was all a project of Lord Kinnaird's. 

I next went to see some linen works, where from the 
flax in an uncombed state they spun and wove all sorts 
of stuff from the fine linens to sail cloth. About 700 



92 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

children between the ages of seven and fourteen were 
employed by the mill, but by a recent Act of Parliament 
they can work only four and a half hours a day during 
one week and six the alternate, and they are obliged to 
go to school every day but Saturday. For carrying out 
this law they are divided into squads or shifts. I went to 
the half-time school where these children were taught. 
I examined their writing and heard some of them read 
and recite while others did long multiplication for me. 
Some of these children were bright and on the average 
not unlike our public school children. The building was 
not quite up to our public school standard. They said 
the children are no more troublesome than those of a 
better class. 

I went to the library in the Albert Institute and saw 
an ingenious arrangement for showing instantaneously 
whether books were in or out. It was a device that 
seemed well worth copying. It also told automatically 
when a book was out overtime, so that the librarian 
could see, without moving from his seat and at a glance, 
when any one was overdue. 

Visited the Museum and Royal Exchange. I was 
taken about by an agent of the committee of the 
"Prison Aid Society" for employing discharged con- 
victs. A month before a convict who has behaved well 
in prison and seems worthy of trust is to be discharged, 
the jailer reports him to the agent, sending photograph 
and statement of character. If the case seems worthy, 
it is reported to the committee. If the committee ap- 
proves, the agent then goes to the managers of the 
various mills and makes arrangements to have the man 
employed without having the owners of the mills, the 
overseers, or the fellow-laborers know anything about 
the man's career. 



LORD KINNAIRD'S PHILANTHROPIES 93 

According to an Act of Parliament the discharged 
man has to report to the police weekly, but to save him 
the disgrace of this and the chance of his status being 
made known in this way, the committee has made 
special arrangements that the police shall be furnished 
information as to the man's whereabouts by the com- 
mittee. This was all Lord Kinnaird's work and it has 
so far been successful. It has been in operation three 
years. 

Lord K. has also started coffee houses, very much 
more successful than those we have in the United States, 
as far as I know of them. There are fourteen regular 
and thirty branches and they make money by selling 
coffee at a penny a large cup and soup at twopence a 
plate. The management is put in the hands of a com- 
mittee from the poorer classes and the manager of each 
establishment has a slight interest beside his salary. 

Those coffee houses that we have started in America 
are run from above as philanthropies, and naturally the 
working-man does not like to accept charity and takes 
little interest in the success, but here by giving him a 
control he feels independent and self-respecting. 

Lord K. told me that the last thirteen have all been 
started from the profits of the first and succeeding ones. 
As a result of a recent Act of Parliament which shuts 
up all liquor shops at 11 p.m. till 8 a.m. the next day, 
the coffee houses are made still more successful. 

Drove home by way of a farm and saw steam plough- 
ing machines and a reaper at work. Lord K. showed me 
a farm so bad a few years back that his tenant gave it 
up. Lord K. took it himself and by draining and sub- 
soiling it and using suitable fertilizers, it has now on it 
the best wheat and barley crops in the neighborhood. 

Played lawn tennis from tea to dinner. In the eve- 



94 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

ning played bezique with Lord and Lady K. and Angus 
Ogilvy, Lord K.'s eldest grandson, an Eton boy. Lord 
K., who is sixty-eight years of age, occasionally drops 
asleep, but wakes up again bright and ready to play his 
hand well. He and Lady K. get up early for chapel serv- 
ices before breakfast, work very hard all day for their 
tenants and over charities, and go to bed rather late, 
and it seems to me they do not give themselves enough 
rest. 

Tuesday, August 24 

In the Dundee "Advertiser" was a notice of my visit 
to Dundee, speaking of me as the son of the popular 
writer of "Three Years Before the Mast" and the 
grandson of Dana, the American poet. This is St. 
Bartholomew's Day. We had a full service at 11 a.m. 

After service I worked over an idea of mine for a 
machine to gather up and bind the barley and wheat 
lying on the ground. Every other process of harvesting 
is done by machinery except this, and it requires a num- 
ber of laborers to be temporarily employed who have 
no other useful work on the farms at other times. 

After lunch went to a flower and vegetable show at 
Inchture got up by Lord and Lady Kinnaird. I was 
made judge and awarded the first, second, and third 
prizes for cut flowers arranged in beds, which I was to 
consider as to taste in arrangement and harmony in 
color as well as the quality of the flowers. Drove back 
and played cricket from tea to dinner. After dinner 
bezique again with the same as last night. 

Wednesday, August 25 

Rained almost all the time before lunch. Cleared up 

later and Lord K. drove Lady K., the Reverend Mr. 



CONCRETE COTTAGES 95 

Simmons and myself to see Macbeth's castle or rather 
the site of it. It was on the top of a very high ridge of 
hills with almost inaccessible sides except from one 
direction. The castle must have looked grandly and 
have been as secure as Edinburgh or Stirling. Saw also 
the place where Macbeth met the witches and the Bir- 
nam wood which, to Macbeth's horror, came to Dun- 
sinane castle. 

After tea played lawn tennis with Angus who would 
not take a handicap, though I beat him badly. He is a 
plucky young fellow. I have seen a good deal of the 
Ogilvy children the last few days and have become a 
great crony with each of them. They are clever, jolly 
children, and very easy to get on with and readily 
amused. Played cards again in the evening. I have 
breakfast in my room as a rule, and take up some fresh 
figs, apricots, and grapes the evening before to eat in 
the morning. There are very extensive hothouses for 
raising fruits of all sorts at the Priory and they occa- 
sionally have some rare kinds at dinner. 

In the afternoon, before tea, Lord K. showed me some 
of his cottages. The newer ones were built of concrete. 
Concrete is one part Portland cement and seven parts 
clean, small stones or gravel. This is laid in solidly so 
that as it petrifies, the house becomes from foundation 
to ridgepole, where the roof is of the same, one solid 
stone. This concrete becomes harder and harder in the 
course of years. It is said to be practically waterproof. 
It dries quickly, more so than ordinary plaster. I saw 
one which was papered and the paper was perfectly 
smooth, although it had been on the walls all winter 
without a fire in the house. This construction does 
away with all mason's work and with plaster and lath- 
ing. Lord K. showed me one cottage that had been 



96 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

built by one man and two boys, none of them skilled 
masons, in twenty-one days. Kinnaird had a new 
method of ventilation which he had invented from the 
principle of the inverted siphon and connected with the 
chimney flues. He showed me how it worked. He has 
put this device in all his newer cottages. 

Thursday, August 26 

We drove to a flower, fruit, and vegetable show at 
Dundee. There I met the American Consul, who kindly 
introduced himself. Went to see an engineer at Errol 
about my invention. I explained the details and he 
gave me encouragement. He said that if I should suc- 
ceed I could save half the hand labor and perhaps all of 
it in this gathering and binding. I lunched in this queer, 
dirty little town of Errol and got back to the Priory at 
half-past five. There I found Lord Kinnaird playing 
lawn tennis with his grandson. I played cricket till 
dinner. As usual I took Lady K. in to dinner. She is 
bright, well-informed, and entertaining. It turned out 
afterwards that she was suffering all the while from a 
splitting headache and had to give up after dinner and 
go to her room. Talked over American politics in the 
evening with Kinnaird and Mr. Ogilvy. (I did not have 
time in these visits to have this machine built after my 
plans, and soon after returning to the United States 
some fourteen months later, I heard that the device or 
one very like it had been patented and was being put on 
the market.) 

Friday, August 27 

Left the Priory to-day. I drove to the station at 
twelve and rode on the train as far as Perth with Lord 
K. I had taken a second-class ticket as usual and he had 



LORD KINNAIRD'S USEFULNESS 97 

bought a first-class, but he insisted upon sitting with 
me in the second-class carriage so as to talk. He showed 
me from the carriage window a high precipice on the 
land of Lord Gray which he (Lord K.) very nearly fell 
over during a hunt. 

Lord Kinnaird is an instance of a useful member of 
the House of Lords. Not being so mixed up in active 
politics as members of the Lower House, he had more 
time to give to useful legislation. For example, he gave 
years of time to laws for abolishing the smoke nuisance 
in large manufacturing cities in England. He was one of 
the pioneers in this movement. He told me that it was 
very discouraging, and he thought beside general apathy 
and the opposition of those who would be put to expense, 
one of the chief obstacles to getting anything done was 
that so few educated Englishmen had any scientific 
training. He thought there were not more than two or 
three members of both houses of Parliament put to- 
gether who know enough chemistry to understand the 
burning of the candle. I have already mentioned some 
of the other projects to which Lord K. has given much 
time. 

I may say generally that the members of the nobility 
do not use titles in talking to one another and do not 
expect their friends or visitors to use them except per- 
haps on first meeting them. It is only the servants, per- 
sons who have business relations with them, and trades- 
people, who use the title on all occasions, and, when it 
becomes necessary to use a title in calling their atten- 
tion, the title should not be emphasized. Friends call 
them Spencer, Kinnaird, Sir John, etc. I think they 
like to be spoken to in just the same way that one would 
speak to distinguished Americans, such as Lowell or 
Longfellow. 



98 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Beside a lack of scientific education I was surprised 
to find how little those I have met know of English 
history outside the few things with which their family 
and neighborhood may be associated or which have 
some recent political significance. I had assumed that 
every Englishman would know his country's history 
by heart and could give the dates of all the kings, but 
I found they were not all Lord Macaulays by any 
means. 

The Kinnairds belong to a very old family dating 
from 1176, Radulphus de Kinnard, under King William 
the Lion. The first Baron Kinnaird was created in 1682. 
The family used to live in the old Kinnaird castle, which 
was of mediaeval type and uncomfortable. Rossie 
Priory, built of stone, was begun in 1807 on the Braes 
of Carse. It is on a high terrace, is extensive and impos- 
ing, of delightful proportions, and the chapel especially 
beautifully finished with carvings, stone mullions, and 
tasteful doorways. There are fine specimens of rare 
and varied firs, some very large. One, they told me, 
extends its branches in a circumference of one hundred 
fifty feet. 

The view from the house or Priory is varied. In front, 
and to the left, one sees the valleys of the Carse and of 
the Tay with cultivated fields, and in the distance the 
smoke of Dundee, often colored by the sunlight and 
purple from the effect of its remoteness. The ruins of 
Moncur Castle, "hoary with age" and rich in legends 
of Pictish wars, is near by, but dearest to me is the 
memory of these good, kind people who have had their 
sorrow as well as their joy. They lost an only son and 
heir when he was a young man, but they make the 
most of their daughter and her husband and children — 
rather pathetic 3 it seems to me, with all their outward 



PICTURES AT ROSSIE PRIORY 99 

smiles and cheery words. The pictures, mosaics, and 
books in the Priory are worth admiring study. 1 

1 A list of some of the pictures at Rossie Priory: 

Angelo, Michael. Head of a Slave. 

Bassano, 1510-1592. Announcement to the Shepherds. Adoration of the 
Wise Men. 

Bramantino, 1460-1529. The Nativity. 

Correggio, 1494-1534. Virgin and Child with Angels. 

Caracci. Ecstasy of a Saint. 

Durer, Albert, 1471-1528. Virgin and Child. 

Dolci, Carlo. Head of the Virgin. 

Gainsborough. Sir William Pulteney-Johnson (married a Miss Kinnaird). 

Hogarth. Portrait of the artist. 

Jan Steen. Dutch interior ("Saying grace"). 

Lely, Sir Peter. Duke of Monmouth. 

Luini, 1475-1533. The Colombine. 

Van Dyck. Lady Van Dyck's child. Prince Rupert. 

Velasquez. A servant. A page. 

Leonardo da Vinci (probably by a pupil). Venus. Portrait of a lady. 

Morland, George. Pigs. 

Meissonier. A greyhound. 

Northcote. Charles, 8th Lord Kinnaird. The Artist's Brother or the Fal- 
coner. Pope Pius VI. 

Poussin. Four landscapes. 

Raeburn. Portrait of an old gentleman. 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua. Sheridan. Lady Hamilton. A banished lord. 

Raphael. The Resurrection. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of the artist. A lady with a ruff. 

Rondinelli, 1480-1500. Two heads. 

Romney. Lord Kinnaird. Lady Kinnaird. 

Solario. Descent from the Cross. 

Spagnoletto, Giuseppe Ribera, 1589-1656. Virgin and Child. 

Titian. Portrait of a lady of Colonna family. 



CHAPTER VII 

INVERARY CASTLE: THE DUKE OF ARGYLL'S 
(PRINCESS LOUISE) VIA THE TROSSACHS 

Saturday, August 28 

Drove by coach to Loch Katrine, passing on the way 
Coilantogle, Loch Achray, and then through the pic- 
turesque and romantic entrance to the Trossachs. I 
put up at the Trossachs Hotel, a very pretty stone 
building, once a shooting lodge. Sketched Benvenue 
across Loch Achray and Ellen's Isle on Loch Katrine, 
sitting near the beach called the Silver Strand where 
fair Ellen had her first interview with the knight of 
Snowden. 

I shall not go into the details of scenery, but must 
mention the intense and brilliant coloring. The sun 
broke forth after a rainy forenoon and lighted up spots 
of green grass, red heather, and warm brown shrubs, all 
sparkling with showery drops in the sunlight; while as 
the sun conquered the day, the shadows of the few 
clouds still in the sky passed rapidly over the hills like 
troops of dark horses and the glens purple in the middle 
distance, the gray blue of the more remote peaks of 
Benvenue, and the cobalt of the sky brought down to 
the sparkling waters of Loch Achray and Loch Katrine 
thrilled me with an ecstasy of delight I have never felt 
from nature before. 

Sunday, August 29 

Went to chapel in the morning where they had the 

service of the Established Church of Scotland. We sat 



THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND 101 

while hymns were sung and stood in prayer. There was 
no organ, but a clerk pitched and started the tunes. 
We sang "Martyrdom," and had a good sermon on 
"Put My Tears in Thy Bottle." In the evening we had 
Church of England service and a very eloquent sermon 
from a Presbyterian (!) minister who told two stories 
after the manner of Moody. When the service was over 
there was some general singing of hymns in which all 
joined. This latter was very homelike. 

Monday, August 30 

Hard rain. Old St. Swithun again at it! Very little to 
do as the bedrooms were too small for comfortable 
reading or writing. There were no bowling alleys, no 
reception rooms, and no piazzas. In the afternoon I 
tried to sketch in water-colors a lovely view from my 
window, but the damp air would not let the colors dry 
and the mist kept obscuring the sight of Benvenue. 
Before dinner I braved the rain and started out on a 
footpath leading round the hills and close under the 
foot of Benvenue to Loch Katrine. It was a rough path 
and seldom used by tourists. 

I passed an old ruin of a Highland cottage. It was 
built of the rudest stones, held together with mountain 
bog mud. The builder, to save himself trouble, had 
taken advantage of two boulders to form a large part of 
his walls. This gave a good idea of the former poverty 
of the country. Before I turned to go back, after a walk 
of two miles, the sun suddenly came out over the 
mountains and produced again, as it were for my spe- 
cial benefit, rapidly changing but very beautiful effects 
as it topped first the tallest trees and then shone on 
the glistening heather and on nearer and then on more 
distant hills. I passed several gurgling water-courses 



102 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

coming down the mountain-side and felt well repaid 
even for the thorough wetting which I got. 

Tuesday, August 31 

Rowed over to Ellen's Isle and wandered about for an 
hour there. It reminded me a good deal in shape and 
woodiness of the island off our beach at Manchester- 
by-the-Sea. Left the Trossachs Hotel, called for short 
" Ardcheanacrochan Hotel," to walk to Inversnaid, my 
luggage booked to go by the next coach. I walked to 
the pier and took a steamer across Loch Katrine, as 
there is no road round it. Bade farewell to Ellen's Isle 
and to the pretty Loch Katrine and walked from the 
landing on the other side to Inversnaid. 

Took a row on Loch Lomond in the evening with 
some young Englishmen who sang, "By yon bonnie 
banks and by yon bonnie braes." My luggage did not 
come because no coach came and no coach came be- 
cause there were no passengers. The hotel was near the 
pretty waterfall plunging into the Loch. They put me 
in a very magnificent room of huge proportions and I 
was without even night clothes or a toothbrush. 

Wednesday, September 1 

To-day I began my visit to the Duke and Duchess of 
Argyll. Sailed by steamer from Inversnaid to Tarbet. 
I took a fifty-minute start of the coach and walked 
through Glencoe to "Rest and Be Thankful," a dis- 
tance of nine miles from Tarbet, and then waited ten 
minutes for the coach, which labored very slowly up the 
last mile or two of steep ascent. I secured a seat on the 
top of the coach, which I liked better than the driver's 
seat, as I could look from there both forward and back- 
ward. It was very exciting going down the steep hills 



ARRIVAL AT INVERARY CASTLE 103 

with the brakes all set. I felt in exuberant spirits after 
my walk. 

We had a very jolly guard, who, as well as the driver, 
was dressed in red coat and looked very old-fashioned 
and picturesque. He wound his horn at every occasion 
and "set the wild echoes flying," and as the horses 
rested and all was quiet we heard the "horns of Elfland 
faintly blowing." On going up the long hills the men got 
off and walked as is the custom riding in these Scottish 
coaches. I arrived at Inverary, a quiet little village on 
the west shore and near the head of Upper Loch Fyne, 
where is the Duke of Argyll's place. 

There was no carriage from the castle so I took a 
local cab and drove up. The footman at the door, 
dressed in Highland costume, did not know that I was 
expected. I was sure the Duchess specified the first 
fortnight in September for my visit and that I had re- 
plied I would come on September first. I took her 
letter out to make sure and then sent in my card. I 
had not mentioned the hour of my arrival, as there 
was no exact schedule for the coaches. The ser- 
vant came back saying it was all right, and the 
Duchess immediately met me at the door with a 
word of welcome, saying that she had been looking 
for me. . 

I was shown to the drawing-room where soon the 
Duke appeared. It is very cordial and pleasant to find 
the head of the house ready to meet one, but it is really 
more convenient to be met by servants and shown to 
one's room first, as was done at Althorp House and I 
am told is usually the custom; especially convenient 
after my long walks on muddy roads. Having been 
separated from my trunk for nearly two days, I should 
have liked to have been in my room first, with razor and 



104 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

access to clean linen, before being presented. I saw 
Princess Louise * for a moment. 

The Duke asked me to go out with him after lunch to 
shoot some deer which were doing damage outside the 
deer park, from which they had escaped. Off we went, 
the Duke, myself, and the keeper. The Duke stayed on 
one side of a wooded hill while I stood on the other, 
both with our guns ready to be used at the shortest 
notice; while the "beaters in" drove the deer toward 
us. I saw two roe, neither good shots as both were in 
thickets running fast. I fired at one of them, but did 
not hit, so I failed to keep up the reputation of my 
family, my father twenty years before having made an 
unusually difficult shot at very nearly this same place. 
No deer came near His Grace and at the second beating 
in no deer at all were started. 

The gamekeeper was with me, and when he saw the 
sport was over he started me back by a path in the 
woods through thick underbrush higher than our heads, 
I walking in front of him. I had on a gray suit, not very 
unlike the color of a deer's breast and neck. We sud- 
denly emerged from this thicket, between the leaves, 
and there I saw the Duke in front of me with gun lev- 
eled and hand on trigger ready to shoot, as he took me 
for a deer, and yet, as he said afterwards, there was 
just something queer enough about our motions to 
make him hesitate before pulling the trigger. The 
Duke was very angry and rightfully so. He said the 
keeper should have warned him by calling, as we were 
going in a runway much frequented by the deer, and 
had the Duke not been remarkably cool-headed and 

1 She is a royal princess, daughter of Queen Victoria. In Europe the 
title of "princess" represents a standing sometimes below and sometimes 
just above that of a duchess. She is the wife of the Marquis of Lome, 
the eldest son of the Duke. 



PRINCESS LOUISE 105 

experienced, the affair would doubtless have ended 
fatally. 

On the way home, at the Duke's request, I made a 
long standing shot at a heron some four hundred yards 
away on the edge of the Loch. It was a good liner, but 
just under the bird. On returning home we all had tea 
a little after five. I read the papers and talked with the 
Duke and the two very pretty children of his second 
son, Lord Archibald, until time for dinner. 

A bagpipe was heard playing outside and His Grace 
said that was their way of announcing time to dress for 
dinner — a rather short notice, for I changed my things 
as fast as I could, but was even then just a little late. 
I sat at the Duchess's left and probably was to have 
taken in Lady Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, now 
twenty-three years of age, who was on my left. I 
apologized for being late, only a moment, however, as 
I arrived just as they were sitting down. At table 
were Princess Louise, the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, 
the Marquis of Lome, Lord Edward Cavendish (the 
father of the present Duke of Devonshire) at the right 
of the Duchess; Lady Elizabeth, Lady Edward Caven- 
dish, Lady Victoria, a woman artist, and lastly a sister 
of Lady Edward. The Princess was on the Duke's right. 
She is good-sized, well developed, with a German cast 
of face and a slight German accent. Her r's are gut- 
tural, for example, instead of lingual. Her table man- 
ners are not at all German. After the ladies went out 
the conversation was mostly on deer, and on this I had 
not much to add, so did not join in, otherwise than to be 
a listener, who, in a certain sense, joins in the dovetail 
of conversation as he keeps the others talking. 

I am much fascinated with the Marquis of Lome. 
He is handsome and strong, with delicate features, 



106 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

bright complexion, a small mouth, very light hair, and 
blue eyes, and a manly and kindly bearing. In the eve- 
ning Lady Elizabeth played on the piano very well and 
softly so as not to prevent conversation. The Princess 
talked pleasantly and easily and showed me some etch- 
ings of hers drawn for embroidery patterns. They are 
original and really very graceful. She disclaimed one as 
being only a copy and would take no credit for it at all. 

(James Russell Lowell told me, when I returned to 
America and spoke about my visit, that he thought 
Princess Louise was the most gifted both artistically 
and intellectually of all the royal family.) 

We all retired about eleven. They told me that 
breakfast was to be at ten in the morning. Arrange- 
ments in the evening were made to go grouse shooting 
to-morrow at eleven. Before going to bed I looked over 
some autograph letters of Queens Mary and Elizabeth, 
of Charles I and James I, which the Duchess had 
brought out to show me. Some of these were histori- 
cally important as proving some points of history other- 
wise unsettled. 

Thursday, September % 

The valet appeared with clothes, hot water, bathtub, 
and shoes, at 8.45, thus giving me ample time to dress 
for breakfast. It was raining hard. At breakfast were 
the same persons as at dinner. The breakfast was very 
informal here as in so many of the houses. The Princess 
wore a dark green, well-fitting dress of some woolen 
material, and all had on rather rough clothes, which they 
wore until dinner-time at the end of the day, when of 
course dress suits are de rigueur, except that the Marquis 
of Lome wore Highland costume — kilts and long 
stockings and his knees were bare. The Princess has a 




PRINCESS LOUISE 



PRINCESS LOUISE 107 

straight back and carries her head well without having 
the slightest appearance of stiffness. 

At breakfast the servants disappeared after putting 
the food on the sideboard and we helped ourselves or 
waited on one another. The ladies seemed to expect to 
wait on themselves, even the Princess. They start from 
their seats towards the side table, but of course accept 
assistance from one with grace, but rather as a bit of 
Henry Esmond gallantry than as really necessary. It was 
all so very simple and informal. The talk at breakfast 
was cheery and pleasant. After breakfast I read the 
"Times" and wrote letters. About 11.30 I came down 
and, meeting the Princess, asked her what it was usual to 
do on so rainy a day, and with that she proposed that I 
try fishing, for it was far too wet for the grouse shooting, 
which had been postponed to another day. She went to 
the front door or vestibule, selected me a salmon rod, 
and looked about for the flies, but could not find the fly 
book at first. The Duke brought it, and then Princess 
Louise got out some flies from the book, showed me how 
to tie them on, doing a couple herself, and then made me 
do a few to see that I fastened them properly. 

The Duke, however, thought I had better wait until 
there was more rain and the river higher, when the sea 
trout would come up. I then read Charles Kingsley's 
"Westward Ho!" which the Duchess suggested and 
found for me. 

At lunch the same as at breakfast with the younger 
children added: Lady Constance eleven, Lady Mary 
sixteen, and Lady Frances seventeen. After lunch 
Princess Louise spoke to Lord Lome, her husband, 
asking him some question. He did not hear at first, as 
he was talking to some one else, and she put her hand on 
his shoulder to draw his attention in a gentle, loving way 



108 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

which struck me quite pleasantly. I fell a bit in love 
with Princess Louise, for besides her most agreeable 
manners, she has many fine traits of character and is 
amiable with all and not in the least demanding atten- 
tion, modest without being retiring or sensitive. When 
she first appears in the morning all the ladies courtesy 
to her, even the Duchess, the courtesy being the short 
bend of the knees, not the long backward, graceful 
movement. 

After lunch Lord Edward Cavendish and I went out 
fishing. He did the upstream, which had much swollen, 
so as to use the fly. I stayed lower down and used bait 
for the most part, for the fish, my guide said, will not 
rise to the fly in this section of the river under these 
conditions. We each had a guide, or gillie as they call 
them here, with us who showed us the best spots, un- 
hooked the fish, changed the flies, or baited the hook. 
I got a pretty fair mess — sixteen in all — but only two 
over a pound and large enough to require the use of the 
reel. Lord Edward caught three fine fellows of two or 
three pounds each. 

I came back in time to read for a while and dress for 
dinner. I saw Lady Evelyn for the first time. She is just 
twenty years of age. At dinner I took in Lady Elizabeth 
and sat at the right of Princess Louise who had the Duke 
on her left. Next the Duke on the other side were Lady 
Edward Cavendish, the Marquis of Lome, Lady Ed- 
ward's sister, Lady Victoria, the Duchess, opposite the 
Duke, then Lord Edward Cavendish and Lady Eliza- 
beth in order. Princess Louise had one large beautiful 
ring, beside the wedding ring, on her left hand and two 
small ones on her right. She wore a handsome cross 
hung from a black velvet band round her neck and two 
plain pearls for earrings. Her dress was fine white silk 



THE DUKE OF ARGYLL 109 

trimmed with glossy white satin. Her hair was well 
dressed and the whole effect tasteful and quiet. Her 
features are regular and she has a distinguished air. 

The conversation turned on American subjects. The 
Duke could not be persuaded that the Fall River boats 
go outside in rounding Point Judith. He said he was 
sure they could not because these boats were built out 
on guards, and he thought it would not be safe to sail 
in the open sea even for a short distance, that it would 
not be allowed, and so I must have been mistaken in 
saying they did. He has a way of disbelieving what you 
say, I am told, even in a case like this where I had sailed 
on these boats myself several times, knew the map well, 
and was aware that the rounding of Point Judith in 
the open sea was proverbial for its roughness. 

After the ladies left us the talk was on fishing. As my 
knowledge on that subject was far behind an ordinary 
Englishman's, I again did not contribute much to the 
conversation except as a listener. 

The Duke sketches in oils and one or two of his things 
are rather good. Lord Archibald, his second son, has 
even more talent than his father and has done some 
paintings on door panels about the house. He has also 
made some funny caricatures of his father, illustrating 
his pursuit of geology, philosophy, and the study of 
birds. After dinner there was some pretty good conver- 
sation at times, but as yet the Duke has not come out on 
any abstruse, scientific, or highly intellectual subject, 
up to his reputation, though I tried to start him on some 
of these topics, especially scientific and historical. 

During the day the Duke pointed out to me a hill, I 
think he called it the Gallows Hill, where executions in 
olden days took place, and he told me that his predeces- 
sors used to have the absolute power of life and death. 



110 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Friday, September 3 

Breakfast at ten; all down as usual. None of the ladies 
here breakfast in their rooms. Lady Edward asked me 
about the passage over and how we entertained our- 
selves. When I mentioned singing to my guitar, the 
Princess asked if I had brought it with me to Inverary, 
and said she was sorry I had not when I told her I left 
it behind in London. She wanted to hear some of the 
negro and American college songs. It might not have 
been a bad idea to have carried the guitar on these 
visits, as the English are fond of anything new. 

Fishing at 11.30 took me out with Lord Edward who 
went up one branch of the river and I another. Lome 
lent me his salmon rod and sent after me his fly book and 
flask. How kind and attentive they are! Under the in- 
struction of my gillie I improved much in casting. Be- 
fore three days were over I was able to throw the fly some 
eighteen yards or more. A large salmon weighing be- 
tween eight and ten pounds I managed to hook and had 
to play him for more than ten minutes before he could 
be taken in the landing net. The rod and line would not 
bear its dead weight at the end of it. Walter Brackett, 
the celebrated American salmon and trout sportsman 
and painter, once told me that it was important to keep 
the line taut as much of the time as possible so that the 
fish could not rest and get its breath, and that I must 
remember the pressure at the end of the pole was not 
nearly so great as it would seem to be from the amount 
of effort put out at the handle; so I kept the pressure up 
good and strong. He said this lack of sufficient pressure 
was why it often took so long to land the fish. 

My guide complimented me on the whole, for on this 
visit I had my first experience in fly fishing except the 
fishing for some rather small trout when I was at St. 








? 



THE DUKE OF ARGYLL 



SALMON FISHING 111 

Paul's School as a boy. Beside the salmon I caught 
three fair-sized sea trout. The lunch which I had car- 
ried with me I shared with the guide and took some 
nips from Lome's flask which proved to contain some 
fine Scotch whiskey, and got back at five o'clock in time 
for a refreshing cup of tea which the Princess poured out 
for me, and then read "Westward Ho!" 

Before going into the castle Argyll came out and met 
me and the guide, inspected the salmon, told me its 
probable weight, and asked the guide how I had been 
getting on, and then told me that Charles Francis 
Adams, our American Minister, tried salmon fishing 
several times, but could not manage to cast the fly. 
The line, Argyll said, always got into a tangle at Adams's 
feet, though he struggled hard and got very red in the 
face. Adams, from what his sons say of him, never took 
part in sports or games of manual skill and was there- 
fore at a disadvantage in trying to learn this very diffi- 
cult art. 

The Duchess talked most agreeably with me for a 
quarter of an hour, speaking of my father's visit in 1856. 
I spoke of his admiration for her mother. She told me 
about Queen Victoria and her wonderful sympathy, 
kind-heartedness, and interest in all that was going on. 
The Duchess is the eldest daughter of the celebrated 
Duchess of Sutherland, the mistress of Stafford House, 
London, who was so great a favorite of Queen Victoria, 
was the acknowledged leader of London society in her 
day, and who was so hospitable and gracious to my 
father in 1856. The Duchess of Argyll was Mistress of 
the Robes to the Queen some few years before my visit. 
The Duke has been Lord of the Privy Seal, Postmaster- 
General, Secretary of State for India, President of the 
Council of India, member of the Council on Education, 



112 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

is hereditary master of the Queen's household in Scot- 
land, Lord Lieutenant of Scotland, and has held other 
important positions. 

The Duchess of Argyll is somewhat diffident, and 
talks in so low a tone and with such slight articulation 
that I find it hard to understand her at times. This was 
caused in part by a serious illness not long before. She 
is kindly and thoughtful of those about her and demo- 
cratic and liberal in her public and political views. I saw 
the two perfectly lovely children of Lord Archibald. 

The Marquis of Lome and Princess Louise have no 
children, so Lord Archibald is heir presumptive to the 
dukedom after the death of Lome and his knightly 
little boy is the next in line. Lord Edward returned 
about 6.30 and had not had as good sport as I, for he had 
got no salmon and but two two-pound trout. 

Many of my friends here, as in London, drop their g's 
in the words ending in " ing," saying " talkin' " for " talk- 
ing," and few make hardly more than three syllables out 
of " extraordinary, " saying "extrornry." 

Earl Shaftesbury, the celebrated philanthropist, came 
in the afternoon with a son and a daughter. At dinner 
Shaftesbury took in the Duchess, who as lady of the 
house, as always in Great Britain, they tell me, and 
certainly wherever I have been so far, waited till the 
last. The Duke took in the Princess and went first. 
The Marquis with Lady Edward came next, I followed 
with Lady Edith Ashley, Lord Edward with Lady 
Evelyn came next, and then Honorable Mr. Ashley, 
son of Earl Shaftesbury, with Lady Elizabeth, followed 
by the Duchess and Shaftesbury himself. I had a pleas- 
ant, talkative, and well-informed neighbor in Lady 
Edith Ashley, four years my senior and daughter of 
Shaftesbury, and quite pretty, too, she is. Earl Shaftes- 



LADY ASHBURTON 113 

bury, who is now seventy-four years of age, looked over- 
worked and tired and seemed hardly up to much con- 
versation. He and his family came round in the Duke's 
steam yacht, which now anchors off the castle in the 
loch. 

After dinner several of us played a game of billiards. 
There were seven balls and four persons on a side, the 
Princess being one of them. It was called "battle." 
The game was exciting and brought forth a good deal of 
merriment. Talked mostly with Lady Victoria. 

Lady Ashburton was expected all the time during and 
after dinner. A maid appeared with the luggage by 
coach. The horses had given out some sixteen miles 
away and new ones they could not find there, so on the 
maid's report of the dilemma, two of the duke's horses 
were sent off to help out. At every sound of carriage 
wheels or ringing of a bell they said, " There she is ! " and 
a footman was sent to the door; but all proved false 
alarms. 

On account of so many new and unexpected arrivals 
and many of them ladies, I had to be changed from my 
large guest chamber to Lord Colin's room with thought- 
ful apologies from the dear Duchess. Lord Colin was 
away. All retired at eleven except the Duke and Duchess, 
who sat up for Lady Ashburton. 

Saturday, September 4 

Lady Ashburton arrived at quarter after eleven last 
night, we learned, and yet did not seem a bit tired at 
breakfast after her long, fatiguing journey and annoying 
delays. She is the widow of the second Lord Ashburton 
and is between forty and fifty years of age (nearer fifty 
I find from the "Peerage"), but looks hardly forty, she 
is so hearty and bright. 



114 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

We went shooting after breakfast, Ashley, Lord 
Shaftesbury's son, and I. We stayed out till after four, 
taking luncheon in a farmhouse. Weather was "a wee 
bit soft," which translated into American meant steady, 
fine rain all day, and we had a wet time of it, indeed, with 
grass and heather dripping and got no game for our 
pains. We saw some deer in the park which the Duke 
had enclosed this spring, but they were not to be shot 
just now or at least we were not asked to shoot them. 

Tea as usual at five. At dinner there were the same 
persons as the night before, with the addition of Lady 
Ashburton and her daughter, Honorable Mary Florence 
Baring, a tall girl or rather young lady about sixteen, 
but looking nearer nineteen, and Lord Colin, who had 
arrived during the day. On my left was Lady Edith 
Ashley, and Lady Edward's sister sat at my right. 
After dinner we played battle again at billiards, and 
after that I played a regular game with Colin who more 
than doubled me, but I was content not to be worse off, 
for I play billiards so seldom. 

Got a pleasant letter from Lady Russell at Pembroke 
Lodge. After the billiards we all went out to hear the 
echoes, tried by shouting through long horns. It was all 
so pretty, wild, and romantic with a bright party from 
the house, and this answering to the peculiar Scotch 
cries, the near echoes sharp and quick followed by the 
dying vibration over the water — 

"The devil mocks the doleful tale 
With a merry peal from Borrow Dale." 

I had the pleasure of helping the Princess put on her 
shawl as she came out to hear the echoes. The ladies 
courtesy in saying good-night to the Princess as well as 
in greeting her in the morning. All retired at eleven. 



THE DUKE'S YACHT 115 

Sunday, September 5 

Went to the Kirk, where services began at 11.45. The 
Princess and some of the family did not go, as the ritual 
was Scottish — very like our Presbyterian — and not that 
of the Established Church of England. Walked home 
with Lady Edward and hadan outdoor talk with her, the 
Duchess, the Princess, and other ladies who met us. For 
a time it stopped raining. It was still, however, cloudy 
and heavy. In London there are but twenty-six inches 
of rain in the year while the Duke tells me that in Argyll- 
shire they have often eighty and never less than forty. 

After lunch read and wrote and later in the afternoon 
all went on various walks. Lome took me out to see his 
father's yacht. It is a steamer of about three hundred 
tons and one hundred and forty feet over all. It holds 
about forty tons of coal and burns five tons a day. It 
steams eleven knots an hour. It is handsomely fitted 
up with woodwork, curtains, cushions, etc. The Upper 
Loch Fyne is a salt water tidal loch directly connected 
through the Lower Loch Fyne with the sea and with 
endless channels between pretty islands on the west 
coast of Scotland, and the family take many trips in this 
steamer. At dinner were the same as yesterday, and 
Lady Edith Ashley I took in again and sat between her 
and Lady Ashburton. 

In the evening were prayers, the house servants all 
appearing. There were eighteen maids and ten men- 
servants present, and these did not, of course, include 
the stable hands or farm laborers. This shows what an 
establishment it is, and yet the Duke of Argyll is one 
of the poorer dukes. The servants all remained stand- 
ing until the others were seated. After prayers and when 
the servants were gone, there was general conversation, 
but no hymn singing.. 



116 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

The Princess, by the way, has a separate allowance 
from the Government given by Act of Parliament 
amounting to £6000 or $30,000 a year, with a dowry of 
$150,000 besides. 

The Princess asked me to explain a plan that I had 
thought out and said something about for raising the 
Vanguard. The Vanguard, one of the newest and most 
costly of the English battleships, was sunk in a collision 
in about sixty feet of water in the Irish Channel and the 
Admiralty had been considering plans for raising her. 
The possibility of lowering large tubes filled with water 
to be pumped out and filled with air so as to float her 
had occurred to me; but it flashed on my mind that these 
tubes were unnecessary, for if the water should be taken 
out of the vessel itself, she would rise of her own accord. 
In order to accomplish this I had thought of covering 
the whole vessel with canvas, or if not that, at least to 
calk all the cracks, cover the holes made in the collision, 
and make the vessel as tight as possible and then pump 
out the water. 

But in order to pump the water out from pumps 
worked on the deck of a vessel near by (the only prac- 
tical way of working the pumps), the water must be re- 
placed with air just as is done in caissons sunk for 
foundations of wharves or bridges. I had worked out 
the whole question of air pressure. At sixty feet of 
depth, it would require three atmospheres in all, two 
beside the natural one, or air at a pressure of forty-five 
pounds to the square inch. Hydrostatics and general 
physics I had studied in college, getting maximum marks 
in my examinations, so I was extremely interested in the 
subject and felt confident that the plan was practical. 

After I had explained my plan for raising the Van- 
guard to the Princess, Lady Edward, and some others, 



PLAN FOR RAISING A SUNKEN SHIP 117 

they got me to explain it in their presence to the Duke 
who happened to be coming along. He had had some 
scientific training and was generally looked upon as an 
authority in such matters. Knowing as I did that it 
would be utterly impossible to pump the water out, 
without forcing the air in at a sufficient pressure to take 
its place and to overcome the pressure of the outside 
water, and, assuming that the Duke knew enough about 
hydrostatics to understand, I told him exactly what 
pressure would be necessary. At this the Duke im- 
mediately said, "Oh, I see, you have the popular fallacy 
that as air is light itself, therefore, the more air you put 
in, the lighter the vessel will be." He said that this was 
"a great mistake" and "your plan will not work." I 
then tried to explain to him how impossible it would be 
to pump the water from the vessel without this air pres- 
sure. 

This general theory is an elementary bit of knowledge 
to any one who comprehends the principles on which a 
pump works. It is only the pressure of the ordinary 
atmosphere that enables the every-day pump to raise 
water to the height of thirty feet below the buckets. 
I tried to explain that this air pressure was not for the 
purpose of making the vessel lighter; on the contrary, it 
would make it a trifle heavier, but so little that this 
extra weight could be ignored with safety; and that the 
pressure was solely for working the pumps. 

The Duke, however, would not listen. He shook his 
head, smiled, and repeated again that I had "been 
caught by this popular fallacy," and gave me no chance 
either then or later, when I made a second attempt, to 
explain or call his attention to the pump theory. 

(It is quite interesting to note that the method I then 
thought out has since been successfully used for raising 



118 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

sunken vessels over and over again. Sometimes a can- 
vas cover has been used and sometimes they merely 
blocked all the holes. For example, there was the case of 
the Yankee in 1908, and the Nero raised at Newport. I 
have collected some twenty accounts of raising vessels 
in substantially the same manner. Even the Japanese 
have used this method with perfect success. The latest 
case is that of the Leonardo da Vinci in December, 1919. 
The account of this states, "The leaks were plugged and 
the water driven out with compressed air." x Since the 
World War the British Admiralty has built some great 
tubes of concave model on one side so as to fit onto ves- 
sels, to raise some of the merchantmen torpedoed by the 
German submarines, and where the holes were too large 
to be plugged up. The tubes are filled with water, then 
sunk into position, the water pumped out by "filling 
with air." If the Duke had comprehended the scheme 
and had given me a letter to the Admiralty endorsing it, 
very likely the Vanguard would have been raised and the 
method adopted ten years or so before it was.) 

One day as we were entering the castle the Duke 
pointed out a very beautiful and rare specimen of 
pheasant with wonderful coloring, stuffed and set up in 
a glass case at the left of the front door. Shaftesbury 
and I were walking beside him. The Duke, pointing to 
this bird, said, "Darwin tells us that all these beauti- 
fully varied colors have come about by a process of 
natural selection; how manifestly absurd!" However, 
I observed that Shaftesbury did not assent nor did he 
or I argue the point. 

The Duke is hospitable and kindly, but usually rather 
silent for long intervals at a time. He has reddish hair 
growing in a long cowlick over a high forehead. He is, 

1 See the Boston Herald, December 80, 1919. 



LORNE AND THE PRINCESS 119 

I should guess, about five feet seven inches tall, slen- 
der and active. He was very friendly to the North 
in the Civil War and used his influence with that of 
others successfully to prevent England's recognizing 
the Southern Confederacy. He is an eminent and use- 
ful man. His description of the flight of birds in his 
book called "The Reign of Law" is one of the best, if 
not the very best, that exists. 

The Princess is among those who fail to sound their 
gf's in the present participle, and I notice that Lord Ed- 
ward says "ain't" for "are not" and "am not," and I 
think I caught the Duke using it also. Shaftesbury told 
some very amusing anecdotes during the evening. He 
thinks that the Church of England will in time become 
•disestablished and that it will not suffer, but will, on the 
contrary, be made more vital and living, that the lay- 
men will have more interest in it and it will have a 
greater hold on the masses. 

Stories had been current both in the United States 
and England that the marriage between Lome and the 
Princess was not a love match. These stories varied in 
detail and were somewhat contradictory. From my 
observation I don't believe a word of them. It is clear 
that the Marquis and the Princess are more than fond 
of each other. One reason that Lome did not join in the 
fishing and shooting was that he drives every day with 
the Princess in their pony cart, choosing the hours when 
the rain holds up. They often chat together just because 
they like to, and their amiable ways together are too 
natural and spontaneous to be merely assumed for 
effect, and, moreover, it is evident that she is a happy 
woman. My father in 1856 had seen them playing 
together as children, Lome then about eleven and 
Louise eight. These stories arise, I am sure, from the 



120 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

not uncommon desire to detract from the eminent, to 
make out the fortunate as ill-starred, and the apparently- 
blessed as unhappy at heart. 

Monday, September 6 

This delightful visit has come to an end, as I leave at 
12.30 to-day. I found, however, that I had seriously 
been expected to stay on according to my invitation, 
which read for a fortnight, and all, including the Prin- 
cess, were kind enough to express regret at my leaving 
so soon and hope of seeing me again. I have been here 
just six days. The Duchess pressed me for the reasons 
of my leaving so soon and asked me where I was going 
next, and when I spoke of having accepted invitations 
from Lord Coleridge and Tenderden she proposed to 
write and ask them to postpone these visits to later 
dates. I told the Duchess I should love to stay, how 
pleased I was at her suggestion, and how hugely I had 
been and still was enjoying my visit, but that I did not 
like to have her ask Coleridge and Tenterden to change 
their plans when it might inconvenience them to do so. 
I felt also that a request from her would be tantamount 
to a command. 

The Duchess gave me a copy of "The Reign of Law" 
in which she had written her name "with kind regards." 
I am the more pleased with all this friendly kindness, 
because the manner of all the family is a little stiff and 
quiet. Perhaps it is a Scottish trait. 

Inverary Castle is of gray stone, machicolated and 
flanked with round, overtopping towers, with a back- 
ground of a fine wooded park and steep hills. There are 
in it some very beautiful tapestries, several portraits, a 
collection of old arms, and many relics of the hunt. 



CHAPTER VIII 
LORD COLERIDGE'S 

The Cavendishes left in the morning. I took a boat 
across Loch Tay to St. Catherine, thence by coach to 
Loch Goilehead, with a few miles of footing it up the 
hills ahead of the slow coach. We had a damp-smelling, 
red-faced coachman who was incessantly either jerking 
the horses' reins or whipping them, or both, and kept up 
all the time a continual "cluck, cluck — hiss, hiss" 
accompaniment. 

From Loch Goilehead I went to Greenock on the 
Clyde by fast steamer, at nearly twenty miles an hour; 
then by rail to Glasgow. Tea at Glasgow and by night 
train and sleeping-saloon car to London. Very com- 
fortable arrangements with more privacy than in our 
Pullman sleepers. What little I saw of Glasgow was 
depressing, indeed. The city was dirty and smoky, and 
I never saw so many drunken people about as I did that 
evening, both men and women, drunk and dead drunk, 
sitting or lying on the sides of streets. 

Tuesday, September 7 

From London went by afternoon train to Honiton, 
Devonshire, for my visit at Lord Coleridge's. Lord and 
Lady Coleridge received me cordially and had supper 
all set out for me. As it was late Lady Coleridge soon 
retired and Lord C. sat up with me, sending off the 
butler. As we started up the stairs he gave me my candle 
and then showed me my room. 

This room was a fairly large one, about 22x18, with a 
fireplace, one large window with a dressing-table in front 



122 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

of it, and the sides all wainscoted to the ceiling with 
paneled oak. The evening had been damp and rather 
cool. A small fire was burning on the hearth, and I sat 
in the cozy, rather large armchair in front of it, musing 
over my experiences on this, to me, wonderful trip in 
England. At last went to bed and soon fell sound asleep. 
Some hours later I awoke suddenly with a feeling that 
some one was in the room. 

I open my eyes, take in the situation, and remember 
my surroundings. The fire has gone out on the hearth, 
but I can clearly see the window and the dressing-table 
some three or four feet from it and silhouetted against it. 
The rest of the room is as dark as ink. I listen intently, 
and in a moment I hear a grating sound as of a chair 
moved along the carpet. The sound comes from my 
right side exactly in the direction of the armchair in 
which I had been sitting before I had gone to bed, on 
which I had put my clothes and which I had left near the 
fireplace. I am now convinced that some one is in the 
room. 

I try to pretend I am asleep, but my heart is pounding 
like a triphammer and my breath comes and goes so fast 
and so noisily that I know I am betraying myself. I 
can't any longer feign sleep, and I fear the burglar or in- 
sane person or whoever it may be that is in the room will 
rush at me. I then turn over, take the bedclothes in my 
hand, throw them quickly off, and jump from the oppo- 
site side of the bed. 

I then go towards the dressing-table, where I remember 
to have seen some matches, stumble over a chair, seize it 
in my left hand on the way, hold it above my head for 
defense, get hold of the matchbox, take out a match, 
break the first one in trying to light it, take another but 
the head snaps off, seize a third, light that, and then 



IN THE HAUNTED CHAMBER? 123 

call, "Now, sir!" expecting to see before me at least a 
stalwart burglar, but to my amazement and horror the 
room is empty. 

I look under the bed and behind it, under the dress- 
ing-table and in the large wardrobe, before which I am 
startled as my candle is almost blown out in opening its 
big door, glance up the chimney, and behind and under 
the armchair. This armchair is not where I had left it, 
but very much nearer the bed, in fact almost touching 
it. I then go round the wainscoting, examine and feel 
all the panels, but can find none that is loose or that 
indicates a secret entrance. Strange to say I find the 
only door of my room locked on the inside. I do not 
remember locking it and it is not my habit to do so ex- 
cept in hotels. Being locked with key on the inside, no 
one could have gone out by the door and locked it again. 
I sit down in the armchair and try to calm my thoughts. 
Just then I hear an old dog in the garden below baying 
and growling. Was it the ghost of the toothless mastiff 
of Coleridge's " Christabel," answering the midnight 
clock with "Sixteen short howls not overloud"? I 
again go round the walls, holding the lighted candle 
close to the panels. Finding no clue to the mystery, I 
go back to bed, blowing out the candle, putting it and 
some matches on a small chair beside me so that I can 
strike a light at the first sound of alarm. I meant to 
stay awake for the rest of the night. Strangely enough, 
I fell sound asleep immediately and did not wake up 
until I heard the household moving in the morning of 

Wednesday, September 8 

When I came down to breakfast they inquired solici- 
tously, it seemed to me, as to how I had slept and what 
sort of night I had passed. I wondered if mine was not 



124 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

the haunted room. I said nothing of all this to any of 
the family, but merely replied that I had slept fairly 
well. 

This was the nearest I have ever come to a ghost; all 
the other ghost stories I know of have come to me 
second hand and most of them third or fourth hand. 

At ten minutes to nine we had morning prayers 
followed by breakfast at which were Lord and Lady 
Coleridge, Mr. Edward Coleridge, an elderly man and 
fellow of Eton, uncle of Lord Coleridge and nephew of 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet and philosopher, 
Mrs. Edward Coleridge, and Miss Mildred Coleridge, 
daughter of Lord C. They served me with some delicious 
Devonshire cream. I saw them spread it on bread very 
much as we do butter, only in thicker layers, and I did 
the same. Coleridge and his uncle told stories and 
capped verses and were very lively and entertaining. 
Coleridge himself is wonderfully quick and bright. He 
asked me into his study and I read while he was writing. 
I noticed that he sealed every letter which he wrote 
and this sealing took no little time. I asked him about 
this and he said it made a very good break between 
writing one letter and another and gave him an oppor- 
tunity for change of thought. 

Between his letters he read me two of Bacon's essays 
from an edition which he carries in his pocket; one was 
on the " Duties of a Judge " and the other on " Cunning." 
I took a walk about the grounds and inspected the 
flower gardens. This place does not belong to Cole- 
ridge. He has only hired it. 

Lord Coleridge told me that his income from his 
professional work alone was lately about £15,000 
($75,000) a year and while Attorney-General he made 
annually £20,000 ($100,000). His salary as Chief Jus- 




LORD COLERIDGE AT 56 



ENGLISH FEELING TOWARDS AMERICA 125 

tice of the Court of Common Pleas is £5000 with a re- 
tiring pension of £4000 after fifteen years of service. 

(The very next year his salary was raised to £7000 
and he was appointed in 1880 Lord Chief Justice of 
England, the first to hold that new title, which had 
been extinct for many years.) 

He showed me about the stables, and after lunch took 
me to drive with his uncle and uncle's wife to see an old 
fort said to be an ancient Roman camp called Hembury. 
The country was beautifully green; the dark hedgerows 
and dense trees and bright flowers in the fields all came 
well up to my idea of "merry old England" in this rich 
South Devonshire country. 

Speaking of the English feeling towards America, I 
said we were rather surprised in the North that England 
took so strong a side with the South in the Civil War 
while the South was built on slavery, which England 
abhorred, and it was slavery that had been at the bot- 
tom of the whole muss. He said that he personally was 
not on the side of the South. 

(He had apparently forgotten his early war views, 
for in Coleridge's "Life," 1 in volume second, pages 1 
to 34, it appears that at the very beginning he did side 
with the Southern Confederacy, though he was still 
anti-slavery, but soon changed his views and helped, 
with the Duke of Argyll and others, to prevent action 
hostile to the North.) 

He said that the upper ten thousand in England had 
felt very jealous and bitter towards America, which 
they had lost through their own stupidity in the last 
century and now found to be so great a rival, and added 
to that, said he, was their "pig-headedness" and want 
of information in believing that all the gentry were in 

1 By Ernest Hartley Coleridge. D. Appleton & Co., 1904. 



126 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

the South and only shopkeepers in the North. All this 
led them to take an attitude which had not surprised 
him. 

He told me that Charles Francis Adams, our Minis- 
ter to the Court of St. James in the Civil War, had had a 
very hard time during the first year or two of that war; 
that few others could have kept his position and dignity 
amid such scorn and sometimes insult, and that in the 
end he won very great respect. "Adams," he said, 
"and his work on behalf of the North are not half ap- 
preciated in America." He also added that the con- 
duct of the North during the war won great regard for 
that side. As illustrating how high the feeling was on 
this subject in Great Britain during the war, he told me 
that the only time in his life he had ever known of a 
dinner party being broken up was when some one at 
table had taken the side of the North. It must be said, 
however, that this hostility was almost entirely con- 
fined to the majority of the aristocracy. There was never 
a public meeting held in Great Britain on behalf of the 
South, while there were several for the side of the Union, 
and even during the cotton famine, Lancashire stood 
faithfully by the North, notwithstanding the blockade 
which prevented cotton from leaving the Southern 
ports. 

As to the aristocracy, it should be stated in justice to 
them that they had been impregnated by the diplo- 
matic and consular service of the United States with 
the Southern pro-slavery ideas. They had been told that 
all the "gentlemen" and chivalry of our country were 
in the Southern States; that the Northerners were a 
race of shopkeepers; that the tariff and not slavery was 
the fundamental cause of the war; and that States had 
a constitutional right to secede. 



LORD AND LADY COLERIDGE 127 

No one had been appointed to a position in our for- 
eign service during twenty years at least before the 
Civil War who was not in sympathy with these pro- 
slavery views, and the higher officials were almost al- 
ways men of old family, good breeding, and charm of 
manner. 

At dinner were the Right Reverend John Fielder 
Mackarness, Bishop of Oxford, and his wife Alethea, 
who is Lord Coleridge's younger sister, their daughter, 
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Coleridge, another Mr. Coleridge 
and his wife and daughter, Lady Coleridge, and her two 
sons, Bernard and Stephen, who had come down during 
the day. Lady Coleridge is quiet and reticent. She is 
artistic and has painted some pictures that have re- 
ceived high mention and some prizes in exhibitions. 
She has n't much small talk and only joins in when liter- 
ary, artistic, or other subjects that interest her come up. 

After dinner they had piano-playing and all retired 
at 10.30, after much interesting conversation, most 
stimulating to thought. On going to bed I reexamined 
my room and again placed the matches and candle on 
the small chair beside me. 

Thursday, September 9 

I had no disturbance during the night and slept well, 
nor was the armchair again moved from its place. Lord 
Coleridge read prayers as usual at ten minutes before 
nine. The household servants came in. In reading a 
passage from the Bible, Coleridge paused and under- 
scored or marked two or three special verses with the 
gold pencil he took out of his vest pocket. Played 
battledore and shuttlecock with Stephen, who is in his 
second year at Cambridge. Coleridge sang some Eng- 
lish ballads and sang them well. He has a good, mellow, 



128 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

baritone voice, correct ear, and a great love for music. 
It was really a pleasure to hear him. Bernard, the elder 
son, and Miss Coleridge played piano duets. 

At noon Lord Coleridge and I started on horseback 
for Sidmouth, a distance of nine miles. The day was 
glorious. He was extremely affable and talkative, tell- 
ing me all sorts of things about the effect of large and 
small landowners and of a nobility on the country and 
its people. He is quite democratic in his notions, at 
least in theory. He was knighted about seven years 
ago, and he told me that his wife, who was then first 
called Lady Coleridge, found she received far greater 
attention in the shops simply on account of her title 
and that the tradespeople would begin attending to her 
before others who had come in ahead, but she insisted 
upon taking her turn. 

He told me also that at one time he went with the 
Duke of Wellington to a railway station and on coming 
to the booking office found there was some delay about 
the tickets, the man asking those in line to wait. Then 
Coleridge said, "I see, Your Grace, that they make us 
stand in line and wait like the rest." As soon as the 
ticket-seller heard that there was a duke in line he im- 
mediately stopped what he was doing and insisted upon 
giving them their tickets ahead of the rest, "all which 
very much amused me," said Coleridge. 

At Sidmouth we saw the dwelling in which Queen 
Victoria was born. It was very simple, small, of only 
two stories, close to the beach, with only about two 
acres of grounds about it. Coleridge said, "Would any 
prince to-day live in so modest an establishment?" He 
pointed out a small house at Sidmouth and said that 
when he was first married he hired one half of it for the 
summer. 



WITH LORD COLERIDGE AT SIDMOUTH 129 

The Sid does not flow directly into the sea, but into a 
small pool just above the beach, and there the water 
wholly disappears, reaching the ocean unseen. Coleridge 
quoted from a poem on the River Sid by the Reverend 
George Kestell Cornish, illustrating from this our ap- 
parent disappearance in death before our souls reach 
the infinite immortal: 

"Yon stream, that from its furzy bower, 
Has toiled full many an hour, 
Yet with an onward course and clearly, 
And at her labour singing cheerly, 
Lies as a lake — and pebbles hide 
Her union with the rising tide. 

"And canst thou tell, thou loitering one, 
Where the waters are gone? 
They have not perished in the earth, 
But they shall rise in second birth, 
And soon, from all pollution free, 
Shall join the everlasting sea." 

Coleridge unburdened his mind to me regarding the 
acts of a certain high personage and his own experiences 
and troubles therefrom when Solicitor-General and 
Attorney-General. He also told me a good deal about 
prison discipline and the great amount of hysteria 
among criminals, and many of the practical difficulties 
of keeping men under close restraint and how it had at 
times to be relaxed. We rode back over Downe Hill. 
There the road ran about five miles along the ridge, 
affording all the way very extensive views. 

We dismounted at one of the finest points and, on 
calling my attention to the beauty and expanse, Cole- 
ridge suddenly remarked, "I suppose, however, this is 
nothing to you in your much greater country." I in- 
stantly replied, without thinking how rude it might be, 



130 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

"You forget that the curvature of the earth there is 
just the same as it is in England and we have no more 
extensive views from the same elevation than you have." 
He burst out into hearty laughter, taking it in utmost 
good part. After I had made the remark I felt more as 
though I ought to have been whipped for such insolence 
from a youth to one of the most distinguished men of 
the realm. 

° Things had got, said Coleridge, into such a bad state 
in London society some years ago that the Queen was 
appealed to by the leading men and women of the king- 
dom to come back and give drawing-rooms and become 
again the leader of society. It had been her intention, 
after her husband's death, never to take part in society 
again, but she consented and her presence had a most 
wholesome effect. 

We got back in time for tea at half-past five. At 
dinner were some friends of the family including a 
Madame , an English woman who married a Rus- 
sian and whom I had the honor of taking into din- 
ner, and who told us something of Russian society and 
peasant life, with the great contrasts of luxury and 
poverty between the upper and lower classes. There 
was some more singing in the evening, Coleridge doing 
his part. 

Friday, September 10 

Took a walk with Coleridge to a near-by church. After 
lunch tramped with Bernard, his eldest son, to get a 
famous view from a hill about three miles off. Bernard 
graduated this year from Oxford, and we found a com- 
mon topic in rowing, for he was captain of his college 
boat and I captain and stroke of the Harvard Univer- 
sity crew; he was too light to make the Oxford Varsity 



SIR JOHN TAYLOR COLERIDGE 131 

boat. The sliding seats had only recently been adopted 
in the great races, and he and I talked over the develop- 
ment of this stroke which has practically been the same 
at both Oxford and Harvard. Harvard first used the 
slides in 1872 and Oxford in 1873. 

At four o'clock came back and dressed for a dinner 
with Sir John Taylor Coleridge at Heath's Court, 
Ottery St. Mary. Lord Coleridge drove me over. Sir 
John is his father. While waiting for dinner we went to 
the celebrated church of Ottery St. Mary, which is so 
remarkably graceful and delicate, and walked about 
the grounds with the beautiful turf so green and smooth. 
Saw the flowers, the church from all sides, many old 
headstones in God's Acre and the views, chatting all 
the while as we strolled. 

At dinner were Sir John Taylor Coleridge, Lord 
Coleridge himself, the Bishop of Oxford, Miss Coleridge, 
a sister of Lord Coleridge, and the wife and two daugh- 
ters of the Bishop of Oxford. These two daughters, the 
Misses Mackarness, are well-mannered, good-looking, 
modest and attractive. The younger I thought the 
prettier. (The elder, Mary, was next year, before I 
came back to England, married to her cousin Bernard, 
who in 1894 succeeded his father as Lord Coleridge and 
later was made Judge of the High Court of Justice, the 
only case in English history of father, son, and grandson 
occupying in turn that eminent position.) 

Particularly glad was I to see Sir John. My father 
had told me that he thought he was the most perfect 
gentleman of the old school that he had ever seen, and 
in this I agreed with him. Sir John is now eighty-five 
years of age (he died the next year), but neither age nor 
feebleness prevented a most courteous attention to all. 
It sometimes gave me almost pain to see him rise with 



132 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

difficulty to bow to the ladies or to get a book. Every 
motion of his had grace and charm. He was a handsome 
man with beautiful features, almost feminine, and a 
winning smile, and yet underneath masculine strength 
of character was evident. He is a retired judge of the 
Court of the King's Bench. 

Coleridge, his married sister, and her youngest daugh- 
ter, Miss Mackarness, sang a trio very well. How much 
music does add to a family gathering! We had a beau- 
tiful moonlight drive home after this delightful evening, 
and on the way back I got Coleridge to tell me his views 
about the Trent Affair from the English standpoint. 
He admitted that taking Mason and Slidell off the 
Trent by the American naval officers was in accord with 
old English law and practice. He told me, too, about the 
probable effect of the new Judicature Act, especially 
on the procedure. The procedure, he told me, had been 
very much quickened so that no longer do the old 
scandals of the law's delays exist; no more Jarndyce 
versus Jarndyce. The procedure gives justice much 
more quickly than in the United States and has con- 
tinued to do so. The English may be slow to reform 
their ways, but when once aroused, they generally make 
a thorough job of it. 

Coleridge spoke about the Alabama Claims and the 
trial of these at Geneva under the Treaty of Washing- 
ton. At one time the American claims for "indirect 
damages" were so enormous that it came near upset- 
ting the whole arbitration. Coleridge told me we owed 
much to the tact of Lord Tenterden, to whom I go for 
my next visit, in preventing the whole affair from be- 
coming an abortion. 

He also told me about Lord Cockburn, who was the 
English judge or representative on the commission which 




SIR JOHN TAYLOR COLERIDGE 

FROM A PAINTING BY MBS. CABPENTEB IN THE HALL OF ETON COLLEGE 



LORD COCKBURN AND THE ALABAMA CLAIMS 133 

was to decide the affair. Coleridge said that the At- 
torney-General's office had prepared full briefs so that 
Lord Cockburn might be ready intelligently to discuss 
with his colleagues these claims which arose from the 
loss of vessels, mostly merchantmen, destroyed by the 
Alabama, a war vessel which had been fitted out in 
England and manned by Confederates to fight for the 
cause of the Confederate States. 

"Cockburn," said Lord Coleridge, "was so sure, in 
his positive manner," that the arbitration would never 
come off at all that he threw away all these briefs and 
when it was finally decided that the case was to go on, 
after all, Cockburn at the last moment asked for copies. 
They had no complete copy on hand (for these were 
before the days of typewriting and manifolding) and it 
took no little time to prepare these briefs from material 
on hand, and pretty much the whole force of those 
familiar with the case in the Attorney-General's office 
had to be set to work. 

The briefs, however, by great effort were got to Cock- 
burn in time to be of use, but when Cockburn got to 
Geneva, where the great case was to be tried, he so 
quarreled with his fellows on the commission that he 
made enemies and his information did him no good. 
Cockburn was also rude to the counsel, as I had heard 
from other sources as well as from Coleridge. When 
Caleb Cushing, one of the American lawyers who was 
a great linguist, asked in what language the court pre- 
ferred to be addressed, Cockburn, who prided himself 
on his own linguistic powers, replied, "In Choctaw, in 
Choctaw." 

The award of $15,000,000 Coleridge said he believed 
to be far too great. (It was so much too great that 
Congress has never distributed the whole of it on the 



134 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

ground that some classes of claims allowed by the de- 
cision were really invalid.) 

After the case was decided, Lord Cockburn, said 
Coleridge, uttered many bitter and unpleasant remarks 
about the decision and against Americans. Coleridge 
said that $15,000,000, which was so large as compared 
to the merits of the case, would have been but a very 
small sum, indeed, to pay had England thereby re- 
gained the friendship of America, but Cockburn, by his 
words and acts, did all he could to prevent a con- 
summation so devoutly to be wished. 

Saturday, September 11 

Up at 7.15; breakfasted at 7.45 and left at 8.15, some 
three quarters of an hour before the usual breakfast 
time, but dear Lord Coleridge got up early, breakfasted 
with me, and saw me off. How kind and attentive he 
has been to me, of course largely on my father's account, 
but I hope a little on my own. He has talked much and 
freely with me and has been like a good, kind uncle. 

Coleridge is tall, I should judge six feet two inches. 
The most striking thing about him to me is his fine- 
shaped head and broad forehead, over deep-set, large, 
and handsome eyes. His nose is a trifle long, his upper 
lip short, with a beautifully moulded chin and mouth 
and very expressive lips, and he has an almost boyish 
freshness of complexion, though he is nearly fifty-five 
years old. 



CHAPTER IX 
LORD TENTERDEN'S 

Left Honiton by early train on way to Lynmouth for 
my visit with Lord Tenterden. From Crediton to 
Barnstaple — some forty miles — I rode on the engine. 
On the locomotives in England they have no cabs, but 
only windshields. I asked the engineer about this, and 
he said that in cold weather they sometimes wished 
they had a covering, but on the whole they got hardened 
to their work. I told him about our American air- 
brakes worked from the engine, which they have not 
yet adopted in England, and in return I got some in- 
formation from him of no little value to one so much 
interested as I am in mechanics. 

I explained to him that our American railroads could 
not be built as thoroughly and well as the English on 
account of the greater distances to be covered in our 
country. We have some 70,000 miles of railroads, while 
in all the British Isles — England, Scotland, Wales, 
and Ireland — there are only 16,000; that is, the Eng- 
lish railroads put together can go less than two thirds 
around the world while the American can go nearly 
three times around. Stopped for a half -hour at Exeter 
and visited the Cathedral where they were making 
restorations and improvements, some of which seemed 
rather finical in places, but, on the whole, the effect was 
very beautiful. The roof is all stone of the fan-tracery 
style. Stayed an hour at Ilfracombe, the end of the 
railroad, and looked out on the beautiful sea view. 

After lunch left by coach for Lynmouth, catching on 
the way some glimpses of the sea between high cliffs 



136 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

and ascending and descending the steepest hills I was 
ever on in any vehicle drawn by horses. On the steepest 
descents they put under the wheels steel shoes held by 
stout chains. Lord Tenterden, whom I am to visit, 
met me at Lynton and drove me down to his pretty 
cottage, "Woodside," as it is called, at Lynmouth. I 
saw Lady Tenterden and the children. Lady Tenterden 
is pleasant, kindly, and humorous. She is Irish by birth 
and has Irish wit and fancy. We all drove over this 
first evening to dine with Mr. Bailey, the country 
squire of the neighborhood. His place is called "Lee 
Abbey." It is large and spacious and architecturally 
good. There I met two Mr. and Mrs. Pollocks, brothers- 
and sisters-in-law of Sir Frederick Pollock, the judge who 
was so kind to me in London and who has lately been 
appointed, as I have just learned, the Queen's Remem- 
brancer, a sinecure office. The ladies are sisters of 
"Squire" Bailey. The late Chief Baron Pollock, the 
father of the three Pollocks I know, had twelve sons 
averaging over six feet one inch in height, so he is said 
to have had seventy-three feet of sons. 

After dinner some of the ladies sang and then all 
played pool and billiards. We had a moonlight drive 
home through the Valley of the Rocks, a most desolate 
region, bare of any vegetation whatsoever and with 
huge boulders and square masses of stone piled reck- 
lessly on one another. The scenery of North Devon- 
shire is very grand, a great contrast to that I have just 
seen in the south. The hills and high moors are nearly 
bare of trees except in clefts and narrow vales. At 
Lynmouth, on the other hand, shielded by high ridges, 
there are endless trees, brakes, and shrubs of many 
varieties, with a lovely, running river gurgling over 
rapids and under bridges to the sea. Southey, who 




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NORTH DEVONSHIRE AND LORD TENTERDEN 137 

traveled far and wide, said Lynmouth was one of the 
three most beautiful places he had ever known. The 
high moors of North Devonshire come to the very edge 
of the sea, which seems to have eaten into them so that 
they end abruptly in steep precipices from rive hundred 
to eight hundred feet perpendicular. "Woodside" is 
nestled in Lynmouth valley, and has, on each side, 
lofty hills more steep than any I saw in Scotland, though 
not so high. 

Sunday, September 12 

Wrote letters, attended church, and walked to the 
pebbly beach in the morning. In the afternoon took a 
long stretch of seven miles partly over very rough 
ground. Tenter den had to take up some international 
affairs in the forenoon. The afternoon walk was with 
him through the valley of the East Lyn. "Ham" is a 
common suffix here for the names of villages, as "Mid- 
dleham." The root is that in our word "hamlet." We 
saw some charming scenery of great contrasts — water- 
falls, woods, ferns, steep hills, bare rocks of varied 
shapes, pretty bridges, quiet pools, foaming rapids, and 
much brilliant green, and many, many bright flowers. 

On Sundays there are no mails in England and all the 
telegraph offices are closed excepting for the Govern- 
ment service alone. Tenterden showed me some tele- 
grams that he, as the head of the Foreign Office, had 
just received this Sunday morning from Constantinople, 
with important bearing on the Eastern question. These 
had not been forwarded to the Foreign Minister, and it 
was great fun to read them in this confidential man- 
ner before any of the Cabinet knew of their contents. 
Tenterden has a wonderful memory and posts himself 
up on all the geography and names of persons as well as 



138 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

informing himself on the great issues, but with all his 
study, knowledge, responsibility, and influence, there 
is something more — a human side of cheer, tact, good- 
will, fun, kindness, and laughter. I wonder if it was 
not more the human side than the intellectual that en- 
abled him to preserve the Alabama arbitration from 
collapse. He is a man to win both admiration and af- 
fection. 

Monday, September 13 

Strolled along the North Walk, as it is called, to Lee 
Abbey. This is a path cut in the side of the steep hills 
near the top, with a sheer precipice of five hundred feet 
or so below us and guarded by a low stone parapet. At 
the Abbey Tenterden and I lunched. After lunch we 
had a try at archery, in which the others were skilled, 
but I did fairly well for a beginner, they made me think. 
We then walked to Duty Point from which the only 
daughter of Sir Edward de Whichehalse threw herself 
down when she was deserted by her lover, a favorite of 
James II. The precipice is some five hundred feet per- 
pendicular. We passed Castle Rock, a huge promontory 
six or seven hundred feet high, of square blocks of stone 
and looking very like a ruined, cyclopean castle of 
enormous proportions. 

In the evening dined at Dr. Julius Pollock's, where 
were Lord and Lady Tenterden, Dr. and Mrs. Pollock, 
and Mr. and Mrs. Rowcliffe. Mr. Rowcliffe, a Queen's 
Councilor of much ability, has now lost his health from 
overwork. Mrs. Rowcliffe is handsome, witty, and a 
brilliant talker and raconteur. 

(Some years later, the first Lady Tenterden and Mr. 
Rowcliffe having died, Lord Tenterden married Mrs. 
Rowcliffe and a delightful pair they must have made.) 



DEER-HUNTING AT EXMOOR 139 

Tuesday, September 14 

Drove to a meet at Exmoor. Exmoor is a high plateau 
near the sea and in places from 1500 to 1600 feet above 
high tide mark. Here is said to be the only place in 
England where the red deer is found wild. Only fifty 
years ago the country hereabouts was almost unknown, 
with no roads, only mule paths leading to the interior. 
It was for a long time, in fact till free trade came in, the 
haunt of smugglers, and as late as Queen Anne's time 
there were bands of robbers in the vicinity. We drove 
in a carriage together, Tenterden, Mrs. Julius Pollock, 
Mrs. Rowcliffe, and myself. About two o'clock a fine 
stag was started by the hounds, and, trying to leap 
across a sunken road just ahead of us, he struck on the 
opposite bank and broke his leg. He was easily caught 
and killed near our carriage. Later another start was 
made and off went the hunters, with here and there 
a red coat, over heath and heather, down one valley 
and up the opposite hill, following the hounds. Soon 
they all appeared silhouetted against the sky on the 
high horizon, then they disappeared slowly and left 
us to envy their enjoyment and plan for our return 
home. 

Exmoor is the romantic setting for Blackmore's 
"Lorna Doone," of which they tell me the story, I not 
having read the book. Tenterden then took me to walk 
by way of Glenthorne, the seat of Mr. Halliday, where 
we called, but found them all out. We had a fascinating 
and wild walk, part of the way on a narrow path on the 
side of a precipice with no outer wall. On arriving home 
my pedometer registered eleven miles. 

At dinner were Mr. and Mrs. Rowcliffe and Dr. and 
Mrs. Pollock. Mr. Rowcliffe was unwell and had to 
leave the table. There was some fear of his being se- 



140 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

riously ill, as he had been in such poor health; but he 
recovered soon and the dinner was not interrupted. 

Wednesday, September 15 

Took sketch book up the river to do a pretty scene; as 
usual, not so pretty on paper as the scene itself. The 
others tried the fishing, which proved to be poor. They 
always give curious explanations about this fishing and 
lack of fish, as that there is an east wind, or the water 
is too clear, or the weather too dry, or there is too much 
rain, or the water is too brown. The subject I chose 
for the sketch was an arched stone bridge and rapids 
underneath. 

After lunch we went out sea fishing in a heavy row- 
boat and had fair luck, catching one cod and several 
rock whiting. 

Dined at Dr. Pollock's, where were the usual quartet, 
with a Mrs. Howe in addition. She is a widow and one 
of the three large landowners in the neighborhood, 
lively, bright, good-looking, and considered a great 
"catch." The good ladies, who, like most of their kind, 
are match-makers, got me to call on her and made 
several occasions to bring us together. 

Thursday, September 16 

After lunch drove with Dr. Pollock and Tenterden 
several miles up the river Lyn and fished, but the river 
was too low and the water too clear, so we had no luck. 
We then drove to within three or four miles from home 
and about dusk began fishing in Long Pool. Long Pool 
is in a deep ravine between high, perpendicular rocks 
with a small fall of water at the upper end. The banks 
are wooded here and there on little shelves of rock with 
a variety of trees. At all times it is very picturesque, 



FISHING AT LYNMOUTH 141 

but the change from twilight to darkness and then to 
moonlight, with the moon itself at one moment behind 
clouds, at the next dimmed with mist, and again shin- 
ing out clearly on the opposite bank, glistening to the 
water's edge and falling through the trees here and 
there upon rocks or water, was something surpassingly 
beautiful. It was a fairyland; the soft shadows and 
bright spots gave easy play to the imagination to pic- 
ture all sorts of depths and heights, palaces and halls, 
while the falling water, with its babbling sound, put 
one nearly to sleep, until there would come a tug at 
the line to remind one of reality and to turn the 
mind from soothing dreams of the imagination to 
catching real fish, from castles in Spain to Long Pool, 
Lynmouth. 

We had good luck for the state of the water, catching 
twenty-two trout and three eels. We stopped fishing a 
little past midnight and walked home by the banks of 
the stream. The moon had a highly colored ring about 
it and our path lay mostly in the woods, sometimes 
high above and again on a level with the stream which 
flows over a rocky bed with several waterfalls and fre- 
quent rapids. The whole scene was very different from 
anything I had imagined as existing in England. It is 
wild and not unlike some unfrequented parts of our 
White Mountains, if a variety of oaks, beeches, birches, 
and plane trees should be substituted for the New 
Hampshire firs. The ivy grows wild in great profusion 
and fuchsias and blossoming myrtles thrive out of doors 
all the year round. At half -past one we had a late sup- 
per or early breakfast, if you prefer to call it so, which 
was very refreshing and was brightened up with Ten- 
terden's cheery talk and catching laughter. 



142 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Friday, September 17 

After lunch walked up the river while others fished and 
had a long talk with Mrs. Julius Pollock. Afterwards 
went in bathing in the sea and came near being caught 
by the tide under the cliffs. The tide rose to-day some 
twenty-two feet ten inches, and when it got started, it 
came up very fast, every wave being in advance of the 
last, during the rush. The cliffs were so steep they were 
impossible to climb and the beaches were very flat, so 
that a few feet of rise caused a rapid rush of the waters 
over long distances, and, with the strong currents and 
rough surface, it would have been almost impossible 
to swim round the point to the mouth of the Lyn and 
I came near meeting the fate of Mary in Charles 
Kingsley's poem "The Sands of Dee." 

Fished from a boat in the harbor, but had very poor 
luck. The bad luck was, of course, explained. There is 
a reason for everything that goes wrong in fishing, only 
the reason is never known until after the fishing is over. 
The reason this time was distant rumbling thunder. 
There was a heavy shower during the night with loud 
claps and sheets of lightning and in the morning the 
river "came down"; that is, the water had come from 
the hills and the river rose. That is generally a promise 
of good sport, so we all, ladies included, started up the 
river before lunch, but the fishing was never worse. We 
could not even get a bite. The ladies went back for 
lunch while we men ate the "grub" we had taken with 
us, stayed until eight o'clock in the evening, and went 
home for late dinner. 

In the afternoon the luck was as bad as it had been in 
the morning, though in the early evening Tenterden 
succeeded in landing a sea trout, a salmon peel of about 
one pound and a half, a few eels were caught, and one 



POOR FISHING 143 

or two smaller trout. The reason given this time was 
that the fish expected more rain, though exactly why 
they should have been less hungry in that expectation 
or why they had any power or cause to expect anything, 
was not explained. Another reason was that the water 
was not fine enough. I thought that was a very clever 
excuse, for no one really knows exactly what "fine 
enough" is, so it has the advantage of being indefinite. 
Some said the color was too brown or too yellow or not 
brown or not yellow enough, but strange to say, in this 
case as in the others, they did not find out that the 
water was the wrong color or the fish were expecting 
anything till after we had been several hours without 
catching a thing. 

After dinner Tenterden and I went over to Dr. Pol- 
lock's and they made me do several sleight-of-hand 
tricks with cards and coins. Lady Tenterden has been 
unwell since the first two days of my visit. Tenterden 
told me he prized very highly my father's notes to 
Wheaton's International Law and said he and others use 
them all the time at the Foreign Office as the best 
authority and expressed with remarkable clearness and 
precision. 

Sunday, September 19 

Went to church in a very pretty chapel with a good 
clergyman, a tourist, and no choir, but fair congrega- 
tional singing. In the afternoon went to Lee Abbey 
where I met a Mr. and Mrs. Wilde. Wilde is a barrister, 
and the son of Lord Truro. Mr. Wilde is father of 
Mrs. Bailey. 

On the way over I discovered that Mrs. Julius Pol- 
lock was an authoress. She wrote a book called "Lissa- 
del" which was published this spring and had been 



144 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

favorably criticized. The scene of the novel is laid in the 
vicinity of Lynmouth. We took a walk to Leemouth 
where there is a sand beach, all the other beaches being 
more or less stony. As we were walking along the shore 
they pointed out an overhanging cliff. It seemed almost 
directly over the water and yet they told me that from 
above, it was almost impossible to throw a stone into 
the sea. 

I knew they would ask me to try and at the top of the 
cliff there would be only jagged stones, so I slyly put 
some smooth, large, flat ones into my pocket. When at 
last we wound our way up to the top, surely enough they 
challenged me to try, and making use of the best one of 
the stones from my collection, I threw it off toward the 
water and succeeded in reaching it, where we saw it 
splash, much to their astonishment. The feat, they told 
me, had been done only one or two times before and that 
I beat the former throws by a fair distance. I suppose 
the others did not have the forethought to supply them- 
selves, like David when going against Goliath, with 
"smooth stones from the brook," or, in this case, from 
the beach. 

It was a beautiful sunset over the water. We walked 
home by the North Walk. The great height at or near 
the tops of the cliffs gives a very extended horizon which 
seems so high as to be almost a hill of water and adds 
much to the charm of the sunset. The ships on the large 
waves below seem like toy vessels on the ripples of a 
duck pond. 

Mrs. Pollock asked if she might make use of me as her 
hero in the next novel. In my conceit I said that I would 
hardly do for a hero and got a deserved answer: "Oh, 
it does n't do to have a perfect hero or he would be 
laughed at by the critics." 



TO ILFRACOMBE BY STEAMER 145 

A moonlight walk up the Watersmeet Road. Sang 
songs. 

Monday, September 20 

Mr. and Mrs. Rowcliffe left in the morning and I waited 
to see them off. They asked me to be sure and come and 
see them when in London. It threatened rain in the 
afternoon and just before I left it began to pour in 
torrents. On bidding Tenterden good-bye he gave me 
letters of introduction, which he had prepared, to the 
British ambassadors in the various capitals which I was 
to visit: Paris, Rome, Athens, Cairo, and Constan- 
tinople. He told me that these were more than "soup 
tickets." 

Went to Ilfracombe by steamer. There is no wharf, 
so passengers and luggage have to be rowed out by boat. 
Lord and Lady Tenterden and children and Dr. and 
Mrs. Pollock came down to the beach to see me off. 
Rather a wet farewell. This is the first time I have seen 
Lady Tenterden since she was ill. The steamer passed 
as close to the cliffs as possible so as to avoid a strong 
head tide and we caught occasional views which were 
grand, though soon shut off by rain and mist. All the 
friends at Lynmouth had been so kind to me that I was 
sorry indeed to part from them. I hope to meet them 
all again next spring when I return to England. 



CHAPTER X 

HURSLEY PARK: SIR WILLIAM HEATHCOTE'S AND 
GENERAL REVIEW 

Tuesday, September 21 

The weather cleared off and I finished "Lissadel." The 
trains were so scheduled that it was impossible to stop 
over at Salisbury and yet be able to call at Sir William 
Heathcote's at Hursley Park near Winchester. I had 
got ticket and had my luggage marked for Winchester, 
but the guard of the train told me that Chandler's Ford 
station was nearer Hursley than Winchester, and on his 
advice I had my trunks taken from the van, got out of 
the railway carriage in a fine rain, and told the porter to 
call me a cab. He said there were none about. I asked 
him where was the nearest place I could find one. He 
said, "The nearest place is Hursley." "How far is 
Hursley?" I asked. "Three miles," was the reply. Then 
I looked down the track at my train and saw it was 
disappearing rapidly "beyond recall." I asked him if 
there was any other kind of trap to be got nearer, a farm 
wagon or anything of the sort, and he said "No." I 
then had my trunk sent by parcels express to Winchester 
and started on foot for Hursley. 

I arrived in the park with wet and muddy shoes, a 
cloth cap, and rough clothes, inquiring my way as I 
went. I walked up the avenue and by mistake took the 
turn to the stables. I then asked one of the coachmen 
which was the way to the house and he pointed to me a 
path which I innocently took, but found it led to the 
back or the kitchen door only, so I turned and had to 
pass the stable again, much to the amusement of the 



ARRIVAL AT HURSLEY PARK 147 

coachman. To add to my discomfort I found Lady 
Heathcote and somebody else driving away in a carriage 
from the front door just as I reached it. I was afraid that 
that somebody was Sir William, but the liveried foot- 
man at the door told me that Sir William was in the 
house. 

I thought altogether I had made a pretty bad en- 
trance, and the majestic menial at the front door did not 
offer to take my coat or hat or ask me into the front hall, 
but simply told me to wait in the vestibule. He looked 
at the letter of introduction and my card, leisurely 
walked off, and apparently took his time about it, for 
he did not appear for many minutes — it seemed to me 
at least half an hour — and then, when he came again 
in view, asked me to walk up. I found Sir William in his 
library; he was expecting to see me, for I had sent him 
word by mail that I should call. He was most courteous 
and insisted upon my staying overnight, sent for my 
trunk at the station, and had a message telegraphed to 
my London lodgings, saying I would not arrive till 
Wednesday. After a pleasant chat with Sir William, 
who was affability itself, I read and wrote till five o'clock 
when I was shown into the drawing-room where they 
were having afternoon tea. There I met Lady Heath- 
cote, several children and grandchildren, and Arch- 
deacon Mildmay of Chelmsford, his wife and children. 
At dinner I took in a Mrs. Heathcote and sat on Lady 
Heathcote's right. Lady Heathcote still preserves her 
charm, both of person and mind, which my father 
described. 1 I talked with the Archdeacon after dinner 
for an hour or so -on Church and State, education in 
America, college life and influence. 

1 R. H. Dana. A Biography. By C. F. Adams (Houghton, Mifflin 
and Company, 1891), vol. n, pp. 89-96, 106. 



148 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

The servant in charge of my room made a mess of my 
leather portmanteau, which he had believed, I think, to 
be some strange outlandish American invention. He 
took the canvas cover all off and indeed every buckle and 
strap he could see. As a matter of fact, it was an English 
trunk from Last's in London, and when he learned that, 
he seemed to gather his wits together and managed it all 
right afterwards. 

The house is large and spacious. There is a grand 
stairway and broad halls arid long rooms with fine, well- 
painted family portraits dating back one hundred and 
fifty years when the baronetcy was created. The present 
Sir William is fifth in line, and there are some old mas- 
ters, rare engravings, and good statuary about and an air 
of substantial affluence moulded by good taste and cul- 
ture. 

Sir William, who is now seventy-four years of age, 
took highest honors at Oxford and a doctorate of civil 
law, was in Parliament for many years representing 
Oxford University for part of the time, and has been a 
leader in philanthropies and good works both in Win- 
chester in particular and in the kingdom in general. 
Though holding no cabinet position, his many years in 
Parliament, his high character and good judgment, give 
him unusual influence in the affairs of Great Britain. 

Wednesday, September 22 

Breakfasted with all the family and then took a walk 
with the Reverend Mr. Heathcote, a younger son of Sir 
William. He was very cordial, repeatedly urging me to 
visit him in his rectory if I should be in that part of the 
country. He showed me the Hursley church and rec- 
tory where Keble preached, lived, wrote, and died, and 
I saw Keble's tomb and the house where lived Charlotte 



WINCHESTER HOSPITAL 149 

Yonge, the author of "The Heir of Redclyffe." How I 
loved that book and how I wept as a schoolboy over the 
death of dear Guy! Mr. Heathcote spoke to me of 
primogeniture. He said that though he was a younger 
son, he would far rather his elder brother should have 
the estate and keep it up, retaining all the family por- 
traits and heirlooms so that the estate and the family 
dignity might be maintained, than to have everything 
divided equally and each child get only a small share. 
My father in 1856 spoke of the old estate as sure to be 
in the family for generations to come. 

(Curiously enough, soon after this, Hursley passed 
out of the Heathcote family. The elder son was a Catho- 
lic and a Jesuit and, if I am correctly informed, broke 
up the entail and gave the bulk of the proceeds to his 
Church. I thought he and the incidents in connection 
with Hursley might have furnished the character and 
plot for "Helbeck of Bannisdale," but Mrs. Humphry 
Ward, in her "Writer's Recollections " (1918), tells how 
the suggestion for that book came from another family 
and other scenes.) 

Archdeacon Mildmay also asked me to visit him and 
told me to write him and let him know when I came back 
to London. How hospitable, genial, and kindly these 
people are, just as my father found them to be when he 
visited Sir William in 1856! 

Sir William drove me to Winchester in time to escort 
me over the hospital personally and to let me see the 
Cathedral before the train left for London. He explained 
the system of nurses, probationers — that is, nurses on 
trial — their training and education, and also a system 
of outdoor or visiting nurses, which he said worked 
admirably and seemed worthy of adoption in America. 
One thing struck me particularly in the hospital. In 



150 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES ' 

many such places the intimacy with death and the 
frequent post mortems make the managers careless and 
hard, but here Sir William had a special place set apart 
and at the head of the room erected a marble slab with 
this text, "When this corruptible shall have put on 
incorruption," and does all he can to secure reverential 
treatment in autopsies. Sir William showed me over 
every part of the hospital, pointing out any improve- 
ments over other hospitals, and then sent me off to the 
Cathedral in his coach while he stayed for a meeting of 
the trustees. I spent an hour in the Cathedral, lunched, 
and left for London, having said good-bye to Sir William 
at the hospital door. 

One hears occasionally of dull English dinners, but it 
has been my good fortune not to have been present at a 
single one. The conversation has always been interest- 
ing and sometimes brilliant. I noticed, too, that there 
was habitual courtesy to and consideration for the 
domestics: "Please hand me this," or, "Be so good as to 
get my overcoat," etc. 

I believe I have never given a menu of the dinners. 
They have been bountiful, with many courses, generally 
two of meat, one perhaps being of game, and usually 
there have been from four to six kinds of wine; sherry, 
champagne, claret, and port appearing the most fre- 
quently. 

At the five o'clock afternoon teas the prevailing 
fashion is to take the tea rather strong, with milk or 
cream and no sugar. It is always some kind of black 
tea. Thin slices of bread evenly and slightly buttered, 
and usually folded with buttered sides together, are 
served and sometimes some cake. The full dress of the 
ladies at dinner is rather open, rather low and broad in 
front, sometimes though not always higher in the back, 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HOSPITALITY 151 

and of handsome light material, and with long trains. 
In the daytime the dress is high. 

I have been asked whether a great deal of this cor- 
diality of the English is not superficial. I have sometimes 
met Englishmen traveling where I thought the good 
wines and well-cooked dinners had aroused a temporary 
expression of hospitality which was more gastronomic 
than heartfelt, but even among these chance travelers 
I have made firm and enduring friendships; but with all 
those English men and women with whom my lot has 
been cast for nearly three months, the acts of kindness 
have spoken even louder than words. As I shall show 
later, on my return to England the following spring 
they by no means forgot me, and often by letter or by 
kindness to friends I have sent to them, and by hospital- 
ity later they have shown a warm-hearted friendship 
that is by no means superficial. 

The English method of entertaining guests is worthy 
of consideration. Our hospitality at home has been too 
much of a burden on both host and guest. A three- 
days' visit is a burden; a week's is torture. It is con- 
sidered necessary to devote practically all the host's 
time to the guest; all other matters are in abeyance, 
conversation must be kept up, even the short time given 
to housekeeping has to be apologized for, and it is hard 
for either guest or host to find time for rest or writing 
necessary letters. Excuses have to be invented and 
white lies told. This is continued from hour to hour so 
that before three days are over every one is fatigued and 
talked out, no matter how agreeable are either the visi- 
tors or the host and his family. 

The English, on the other hand, have carried hos- 
pitality to a fine art. Life goes on pretty much as usual. 
At breakfast the host says such and such things are 



152 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

going on or suggests certain plans for the visitors. What 
would the guests like to do? Perhaps the guests plan 
something between themselves and the host and hostess 
are free to join or not as they please. Then at lunch and 
afternoon tea there is a gathering of those who happen 
to be about and perhaps more plans are talked over. It 
is only at dinner and in the evening that all are brought 
together and conversation is kept up. This makes 
hospitality easy and therefore frequent. 
I left England September 25th for Paris. 



CHAPTER XI 
PARIS SALONS, AND ENGLISH EMBASSY 

Paris, September 28 

Delivered letters all the forenoon till lunch; among 
others was one to the Honorable Elihu Benjamin Wash- 
burne, United States Minister to France. He gained a 
reputation for courage and diplomacy in the Franco- 
Prussian War that will always be a credit to our coun- 
try. He was the only foreign minister to stay at his post 
during the Siege of Paris and the Commune and gave 
shelter and protection to nationals of other countries as 
well as to citizens of the United States. He also pro- 
tected those unfortunate Germans who were unable to 
leave Paris during the war and altogether won the ad- 
miration of all. 

He was "at home" and insisted upon seeing me at 
once, and then later took me with him in a carriage on 
his way to some public business. He has a rough ex- 
terior and rather nasal voice, is tall and commanding 
in appearance, has a way of going straight to his object, 
and his talk is sensible and sincere. With all his stay in 
France he has not yet learned to speak French well. He 
called out to the coachman, "Cocher, allez au coin de la 
rue," pronouncing "coin" like the English "coin," 
"de" with a flat "e," and "rue" in two syllables like 
"rou-hey." 

He could not have been more kind to me than he was 
and spoke most pleasantly of my father, his character, 
ability, and writings. Washburne had been called the 
"father" of the House of Representatives in Congress, 
being, I believe, longer in that body than any other 



154 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

member of his day. He was appointed by General Grant 
first as Secretary of State for the United States and soon 
after as Minister to France. (He wrote " Recollections of 
a Minister to France " and died in 1887.) To come back 
to his cabman, that man comprehended the directions 
that Washburne had given him, badly pronounced as 
they were. The French are wonderful at understanding. 

Thursday, September 30 

Among the other letters of introduction I had for Paris 
was one to Monsieur Xavier Marmier given me by Pro- 
fessor Henry W. Longfellow of Cambridge. In reply to 
an invitation from Marmier I went to his apartment at 
half -past eleven. I found him taking his morning coffee. 
He does not speak English well, so my small store of 
French had sometimes to be called into requisition. 
No one could be more charming and gracious than Mon- 
sieur Marmier. He showed me numerous American 
books on his shelves and complimented American litera- 
ture. He has a great love as well as admiration for Long- 
fellow. He asked me if Miss Edith were married and was 
surprised to hear that she was not, and then said, "One 
so pretty and so good," with his hand on his heart, all 
which set my pulses beating with pleasure, for my wish 
at the Wishing Tree at Pembroke Lodge was about that 
same young lady. 

\ His rooms are plain and furniture a bit shabby, but 
the books which line all the walls make up for everything 
else and give an air of coziness and intellectuality. He 
is one of the forty Immortals, an Academician or mem- 
ber of the Institute of France. He has written many 
books of travel. He lives with his little old housekeeper 
and his dog, who made friends with me, contrary to the 
usual custom of this little animal as Monsieur Marmier 



TWO FRENCH ACADEMICIANS 155 

told me. His rooms are on the third floor according to 
French counting. The wooden part of the furniture is 
old and handsome and floors are all bare excepting the 
library, which is the only one carpeted. He was sur- 
prised that I, being an American, did not smoke. 

He dressed or rather finished dressing while I was in 
the room. It was very good of him to speak so kindly of 
America, for I had been told that in his journeys in the 
West he was much disconcerted by the roughness of 
some American travelers, especially on one of the Mis- 
sissippi flatboats. There they crushed his tall hat over 
his eyes and made fun of his broken English, though, to 
be sure, in the eastern part of the country he was well 
received and properly appreciated. He took me to see 
Monsieur Mohl, another member of the Institute and a 
friend of Professor Longfellow, to whom also he had 
given me a letter. 

Madame Mohl has the reputation of being one of the 
brightest and wittiest ladies in France and is the last one 
to keep up the old-fashioned "salon." She was not up, 
but Monsieur Mohl was; dressed, however, in a long, 
loose gown and slippers, although it was quarter after 
one. His dressing-gown was of a brown woolen stuff and 
he wore no collar. Indeed, I suspected from the looks of 
the arrangement that he only had his nightshirt under 
the dressing-gown. He was reading a ponderous, un- 
bound book which was lying on the top of a pile, about a 
foot or two high, of old half -cut pamphlets and leaflets. 
They appeared more and more dusty as my eye de- 
scended to the bottom of the pile. His hot-water jug was 
still on the fireplace. His letters were in hopeless con- 
fusion on a table near by. I judged the correspondence 
of the whole year must have been there, and how it was 
possible for him to find anything in particular or tell in 



156 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

general what notes were answered or what unanswered, 
or what bills paid or what unpaid, I could not make out. 

He speaks English pretty well, for his wife was Eng- 
lish by birth, though she has been so long in France 
that she speaks French better than English, which she 
has partially forgotten. The celebrated Academicians 
soon got deep into literary conversation, of which I 
could get no connected idea. At one time they became 
very much disgusted with some one's presumption and 
made up faces to correspond to the disgust they felt. 
Monsieur Mohl invited me to come to-morrow evening 
in time for tea, when Madame Mohl and some friends 
would be present and Monsieur Marmier offered to 
send me a ticket to the Theatre Frangais, and two to the 
opening lectures of the Institute. Both sets of tickets, 
he informed me, he gets free of charge. Monsieur Mar- 
mier walked back with me as far as the river. Both he 
and Monsieur Mohl live on the Latin Quarter side, 
Monsieur Mohl at 120 rue du Bac and Marmier in the 
rue St. Thomas d'Aquin, No. 11. 

Marmier, although an old man deeply interested in 
literature and a distinguished member of the Institute, 
found great youthful interest in the shop windows be- 
fore which he would stop in admiration. He told me to 
be sure to look at the shop windows in the Palais Royal 
for amusement. Several times as we were walking he 
would stop in the street and take my arm to explain 
something more fully, talking all the time. He put his 
hand over his heart and said, "Professor Longfellow is 
very close here." 

Friday, October 1 

In the evening, after dining at a nice, clean restaurant 

where we had a good selection of soups, entrees, meats, 



MADAME MOHL'S SALONS 157 

vegetables, and fruit, wine included, for two francs (forty 
cents), went with Monsieur Marmier to Madame Mold's 
for the evening tea. French was spoken almost wholly. 

Madame Mohl said she was very sorry that it was so 
much out of season. She regretted not to have more 
society to offer me. However, it gave me an idea of one 
of her salons. She boiled her water for the tea in a kettle 
on the wood ashes on the hearth. She has a small, 
quaint figure, gray hair very carelessly put up, and 
loose-fitting gown, and all the time she is apparently 
much absorbed in keeping up the fire, boiling the water 
and making the tea, and yet I see she is listening, for 
she breaks into the conversation with a few words now 
and then, to which all listen, often causing a bright 
laugh or stimulating a quick answer. There were several 
literary people and bright talkers, I was told, but no one 
of them of very great distinction this evening. 

Madame Mohl's salons are famous and distinguished 
foreigners passing through Paris are glad to be asked 
there to hear this bright little lady — more brilliant than 
her distinguished husband — the other intellectual 
talk, "the flashing play of French" wit, and to meet 
litterateurs gathered in these quaint, crowded, and un- 
kempt rooms. It all seems a triumph of mind over mat- 
ter, about which latter there is rather too much of 
"never mind." (Her letters have been published and 
widely read.) 

Saturday, October 2 

Another morning in the Louvre Galleries. Dined with 
Mr. F. Ottiwell Adams, the English charge d'affaires at 
Paris. Lord Lyons, the English Minister, to whom Lord 
Tenter den gave me a letter, was away and Adams en- 
tertained in his place. At the dinner I met Mrs. Abbott, 



158 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Lord Tenterden's mother and daughter of the late Lord 
George Stuart. She had a very beautiful young lady 
under her charge. There were also a Mr. and Mrs. Hugh 
Wyndham (later he was knighted as Sir Hugh Wynd- 
ham, was British Minister to Servia, Rio de Janeiro, and 
Bucharest, and charge d'affaires at St. Petersburg). He 
had just received a promotion to the position of Secre- 
tary of Legation at Athens. Beside these were a number 
of others to whom I was not introduced. I took in Mrs. 
Wyndham. 

Mr. Wyndham explained the methods of examination 
for the British diplomatic positions. These are not open 
to all, but only to persons who are nominated; that is, it 
is a limited competition. He said also that they would 
have to pass subsequent examinations to show that they 
were keeping up with their work. For example, he would 
soon have to pass an examination in modern Greek, 
after being a certain number of months at Athens. 

Monday, October 4 

Made calls in the afternoon. Found Madame Mohl at 
home. She was cutting out a dress for herself and that 
led to talking about American young ladies. It relieved 
her mind for me to tell her that several of the young 
ladies I personally knew at home could sew and cut out 
dresses and trim hats and that a few of them did a good 
deal of this for themselves, especially those of moderate 
means who were still in society, daughters of Harvard 
professors and the like. It is not an uncommon impres- 
sion among foreigners — an impression which Madame 
Mohl shared — that all well-to-do American women did 
nothing but sit with hands folded, neither taking exer- 
cise nor doing anything useful. Madame Mohl kept on 
with her work, carrying on the conversation all the while 



THE ACTING AT THE THEATRE FRAN£AIS 159 

in her bright, quick, natural way. Natural is just the 
right word, for she says what comes into her mind, 
setting it off with droll figures of speech and odd com- 
ments. She stopped her work just long enough to give 
me a good cup of tea made from the hot water boiling on 
the wood fire. 

Tuesday, October 5 

To the Theatre Frangais in the evening and saw 
"Demi-Monde," by Dumas Fils. Croisette took the 
part of la Baronne and acted it supremely well. On the 
whole I think the most perfect thing I have seen since I 
left America, the one that had the least flaws and gave 
the least disappointment — apart from personal friends 
— was the acting at the Frangais. It came up to my 
ideal. Every character was well done. Even servants' 
parts were taken by finished actors, one of the best in 
the world taking one in which there was very little to 
say, but in which there was a chance to show suppressed 
emotion. Nothing was overdone, while, when the part 
called for it, there was fire and spirit enough. There 
were no useless motions, no comic attitudes just to 
produce an irrelevant laugh, and no unbefitting dress. 
Every actor was attired simply and looked and moved 
like the character represented, just as you would have 
seen such a person if you had met him or her in a parlor 
or walking the street in real life. In fact, all the success 
was made to depend upon good acting alone, for there 
was not even an orchestra, and yet the theatre was 
filled and the audience enthusiastic. 

Received a present from Monsieur Marmier of his 
book "Les Fiances du Spitzberg," with his name in it 
and these quaint words, "To Mr. Richard Dana friendly 
offered by the author." 



160 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Wednesday, October 6 

To the grand opera in the evening at the invitation of 
Mrs. Abbott, who had Madame d'Erlanger's box, which 
is one of the best in the house. We saw in one of the 
proscenium boxes the old Queen of Spain, stout and 
dark, and three of her offspring. Our box was large and 
roomy, number 25-27. Some Englishmen in the box 
thought it necessary to put on the blase, and not only 
went to sleep in the back of the box during some very 
interesting portions, but what was worse, talked and 
laughed quite loud during others. The opera was "The 
Huguenots," and the general effect was very grand, 
although there were no great soloists. 

Mrs. Abbott is bright, cheery, and humorous. I now 
see where her son got his cleverness. 

After the opera was over the English gentlemen 
seemed very slow about getting the carriages, so I 
undertook, with my limited knowledge of French, to 
find on which side of the building the carriages were, 
how to get there, then to find the right ones, and put the 
ladies of the party in them. 

Friday, October 8 

In the evening I dined again with Mr. Adams, who is 
now full British Ambassador to France, at the Embassy, 
and there met a large company, mostly French. It was 
truly an enjoyable occasion. The conversation was 
interesting and largely in the French language. Mr. 
Adams said that the Japanese were inferior to the 
Chinese in power of organization especially. He said 
that in Japan — and he was in the embassy there for 
several years — his head servants were always Chinese. 
He and others who had been long in Japan agreed that 
the Japanese civilization was only external, a mere 



AN ENGLISH OPINION OF THE JAPANESE 161 

veneer. Great proclamations had been made and noth- 
ing but change in dress and a few other externals were 
ever carried out. 

He said that it was a great mistake to have them 
so cried up in the newspapers all over the world. They 
had not even the quickness of the Chinese. They 
could only do what they were told and shown how 
to do. 

(This was a very interesting opinion considering 
what the Japanese have done in the forty-five years 
following. About the time Adams was leaving Japan, 
its Government was laying the foundation for solid im- 
provement. It sent its brightest young men to study in 
the great universities of the West, specializing in the 
various subjects for which they showed adaptability, 
and with this foundation of education they then in- 
vestigated every industry and profession on its practical 
side, each one pursuing his specialty in various countries, 
made reports to their Government and were put in 
charge of the needed reforms.) 

A period of great material prosperity all said was in 
store for America. It was generally acknowledged that 
it would be impossible to guarantee European peace for 
a longer time than till next April (1876). The French- 
men scoffed at the idea of an empire in France before 
ten years at least. They agreed that the political and 
social advance in France was far less than the material. 
It was hoped that the new Assembly would be more con- 
servative and that a senate, which it is now proposed to 
add, will cause a great improvement over the single 
assembly. 

Bismarck, they said, ate not only in a slovenly man- 
ner, but also ate and drank enormously and the French- 
men thought that he had been "greatly overrated.'* 



162 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

The East Indian question, the future of India and what 
to do with it, troubled the Englishmen not a little. 

Saturday, October 9 

Breakfasted at 11 a.m. with Monsieur Marmier. 
There were present a French admiral and two MM. 
Fouret, the heads of the largest classical publishing 
house in Paris. One of them spoke English pretty well 
and knew of both father and grandfather. There were, 
besides these, a member of the French National Assem- 
bly and also a man rather younger than the rest. There 
was much conversation, most of it in French, some of 
which I could not understand. It seemed to sparkle with 
wit, to judge from the rapid-firing remarks and bursts 
of laughter. 

There is a saying that Frenchmen can never meet to- 
gether without talking of mistresses. Strangely enough, 
and even in such a circle as this, made up of literary and 
distinguished people, some of them in middle and past 
middle life, that turned out to be the case. They went 
quite into detail, with names and descriptions and some 
stories had a comic touch. They discussed these sub- 
jects with the frankness and simplicity which we should 
use in talking of rare books or beautiful bindings. 

They asked me about the Senate of the United States 
and how the senators were chosen, for the composition 
of their senate, which they are about to create, was one 
of the problems they were trying to solve. They could 
not well copy the United States method of selection 
where senators are elected by state legislatures, for the 
nearest approach to state legislatures are their depart- 
ment governments, which are only executive with very 
limited administrative powers. These department gov- 
ernments can only suggest to the Assembly, they can 



CONVERSATION AND MORALITY 163 

never make laws as our States do, so the department 
governments have not the dignity of our state legisla- 
tures nor do they represent such distinct local interests. 
So they thought the French will have to adopt some 
other plan. 

Monsieur Rene Fouret gave me the name of a good 
tutor and said I would probably find a cultured family 
who would take Paul Dana and myself in. We wanted 
to have just such an opportunity to improve our French. 
He said, however, it was not the custom in France to 
take strangers into families. 

He spoke to me apart about the subjects of conversa- 
tion which I have already alluded to, and I told him of 
the different ideals among American men as a rule. He 
said he had heard of the same difference before and 
wondered whether, present company excepted of course, 
there might not either be a lack of virility among Amer- 
ican men or of full blood among American women, or 
perhaps, he suggested, a certain amount of decorous 
custom or a sort of hypocrisy that kept these subjects in 
the background. I had heard somewhat the same sug- 
gestions from some Englishmen as accounting for the 
better state of affairs in American society than in Euro- 
pean. 

I urged it might be accounted for by the fact that our 
men were more busy and occupied, we not having so 
large a class of idlers of wealth who were seeking excite- 
ment and diversion. In France, too, it is with some few 
exceptions presumed that a young man is to go wrong, 
while in the United States he is expected to keep 
straight. Moreover, with us most fathers have set a 
good example, while in Paris the sons too often learn 
that their fathers are not above reproach; but most of 
all, I suggested that the influence of the American 



164 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

young ladies over the young men of their own class was 
wholly for good. Our young men have played with them 
as children, have met them as friends, have got to 
know and respect them, and to have affection for them 
or perhaps even to feel that they are or are beginning to 
be in love. Such feelings keep the young men up to 
high ideals which no preaching, no beatitudes, or no 
moral precepts alone would do as well. The American 
youth were fortunate too, I said, in having for their 
national heroes such high-minded men as Washington 
and Lincoln. 

Marmier was kind and even affectionate to me. 

Monday, October 11 

Received a kind note from Mrs. Wyndham, wife of the 
English Secretary of Legation recently appointed to 
Athens, whom I met at the English Embassy dinners, 
giving me the name of a nice French family she recom- 
mended for us to live with. Went to call on this family. 

Tuesday, October 12 

Engaged two places with the good people recommended 
by Mrs. Wyndham. They consist of Monsieur, Ma- 
dame, and Mademoiselle Laya, and they live in a two- 
storied apartment at 36 rue Montaigne, Faubourg St. 
Honore. Madame Laya is English by birth and is re- 
lated to persons of distinction in her native country. 

Thursday, October 14 

In the afternoon we moved to our new rooms and had 
dinner at seven o'clock. The cooking was excellent, and 
altogether it bids fair to be a pleasant place and a good 
opportunity to become familiar with the French lan- 
guage. 



LIVING WITH A FRENCH FAMILY 165 

Monsieur Laya's father was one of the forty Immor- 
tals of his day, a member of the Academy, the author of 
many plays. Monsieur Laya now lives with the family. 
He was an advocate and later a professor of Roman and 
International Law in the Ecole at Paris. Mademoiselle 
Laya is somewhat over forty years of age and her par- 
ents probably about sixty-five. She is a teacher of sing- 
ing of considerable reputation in England, where she 
goes during the London season. She has herself obtained 
the degree of Bachelor of Literature from the University 
of Paris after having passed the regular examinations 
and written her thesis just as is required for men. 

The whole family was quite bright, lively, and enter- 
taining and our first dinner passed off pleasantly. Mon- 
sieur Laya is writing a history of the American Revolution 
and has published two volumes on English law. I think 
he puts in the mouth of General Washington the things 
that he, Monsieur Laya, wishes to prove rather than 
what Washington ever did or probably would have said, 
in my humble opinion. Monsieur Laya knows the pres- 
ent Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, and several prominent 
barristers in England. We seem to be very lucky in our 
French family. The ladies are both able to speak Eng- 
lish so as to explain when necessary, but they are very 
good about talking and making us speak in French. 
Monsieur Laya never talks in English, though he is able 
to read it. 

Friday, October 15 

We engaged a French tutor for one hour every day at 
the price of thirty-six francs a week for both. Called at 
Monsieur Marmier's, who was out, and left a copy of my 
father's book "Two Years Before the Mast" for him. 
He had read it, but did not have a copy in his library. 



166 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Sunday, October 17 

A call from Monsieur Marmier. He thanked me for 
"Two Years Before the Mast" and complimented it 
very highly. He is going to send me a ticket to the open- 
ing of the Academy, of which he is a member as I have 
already said, and he promised to get me admission to 
the Assembly or French Parliament, which opens next 
month. He has met and knows the Lay as with whom 
we are staying. 

Tuesday, October 19 

This evening Madame Laya had her weekly reception. 
At dinner were two young Irishmen, and also the Vi- 
comtesse de Perusse. She was very bright, clever, and 
genial. She looked so young that I hesitated at first 
whether to call her Madame or Mademoiselle. Later in 
the evening her husband and two daughters appeared. 
Her two daughters were just over twenty and looked 
but little younger than Madame. One of the daughters 
is considered a beauty. We were not introduced to the 
young ladies and Madame Laya explained to me that no 
young men were ever introduced to young ladies in good 
French society. The young ladies sat by their mother 
almost all the evening except when in a game or to play 
the piano. We spoke to them a little and they appeared 
intelligent and sensible. But it is customary for young 
men not to speak much with them; They tell me that 
as a general rule the French young men only ask for a 
turn at a dance or remark on the weather or about art 
or the last new play, by way of conversation, and even 
that little is always carried on under the mother's eye 
and generally within her hearing. 

There was a good deal of music, vocal and instru- 
mental, and they made me play on my guitar. I sang 



MADAME LAYA'S RECEPTION 167 

some German and negro songs. They apparently liked 
them. "Omne ignotum pro magnifico." We played 
"How, When, and Where do you like it? " — in French, 
of course. When the ladies got up to go they said good- 
night to us all, but it is allowed only to the married 
ladies to shake hands with men, young or old. Is this 
what the good influence of young ladies on society is 
confined to by the French etiquette? On the whole we 
passed a very agreeable and instructive evening. 

Wednesday, October 20 

For breakfast cafe au lait, eggs, and bread and butter 
at nine, being awakened and having our hot water 
served at eight-fifteen. I fence for exercise on Mondays, 
Wednesdays, and Fridays and paint on Tuesdays, 
Thursdays, and Saturdays, all with French teachers 
who can speak no word of English. The fencing-room, 
or salle d'escrime of M. Varille, is conveniently just 
across the way. 

Sunday, October 24 

In the afternoon called on Monsieur Marmier to thank 
him for two tickets of admission for the opening of the 
Assembly which he had just sent us, and found him at 
home. He was kind and affable as usual. We talked 
French almost all the time and he was good enough to 
compliment me on my improvement. His manner is 
leisurely, his subjects of conversation, though mostly 
literary, are varied, and kindness, consideration of 
others, and good-breeding prevail. 

Monday, October 25 

At the opening of the Institute I "assist," as the French 

say. It took place at two in the afternoon. Our tickets 



168 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

were very good ones in the centre. There were many 
distinguished people present, but we had no one to 
point them out to us. There were four addresses and 
one of them, "La Maison," was by Monsieur Marmier. 

More than two thirds of the members of the Academy 
present were bald. Only five or six had really good 
heads of hair — furnishing an argument for the theory 
that excessive brain work causes baldness. 

All the speaking or rather reading was somewhat arti- 
ficial and much after the same manner. The voice was 
held long on one key and the antithetical sentence was 
spoken on another. In stating statistics or matters of 
fact, the voice was somewhat plaintive. 

An account of the expedition to the Island of St. 
Paul to observe the transit of Venus was received with 
great enthusiasm. There was pretty general merriment 
at the mention of some mistakes on the part of the 
English expedition to the same island. 

The audience was of the best French families and 
composed largely of ladies. The dress was plain and 
simple like that of the good Boston families rather than 
of New Yorkers. 

Of the members of the Academy only the presiding 
officers and speakers appeared in full dress. This con- 
sists of a dress coat, a vest embroidered with bright 
green, a sword at the side, and all their honors on their 
left breast. 

The building in which are housed the forty Immortals 
of the Academy, the old College des Quatre Nations, 
now called the Institute of France, is remarkable both 
for its architectural beauty and its prominent situation. 
It is placed on the border of the Seine, on the Quai 
Malaquais, opposite the gardens of the Louvre and the 
spires of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, with a view of the fine 



THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE 169 

bridges, towers of Notre Dame, and having altogether a 
situation emphasizing the dignity and importance of 
this centre of art, literature, and philosophy, and show- 
ing the estimation in which France holds her Academy 
and Academicians. It is a building of wonderful har- 
mony of proportion and beauty of architectural com- 
position. Its extended open arms seem all-embracing. 

Tuesday, October 26 

This is the evening for the Lavas' reception or "little 
salon." This time we had ajMademoiselle Tribout, who 
was very cultivated and intellectual, sweet and unob- 
trusive. She is about forty-five years of age. There was 
a young man named de la Roselle and a Monsieur Mon- 
tucci. The latter is the examiner in mathematics and 
science for admission to the military school of St. Cyr. 
He is an elderly gentleman of the old regime. He told 
us that the candidates for admission must pass in 
arithmetic, algebra, plane and solid geometry, plane 
and spherical trigonometry, analytics, physics and 
chemistry, and while at the school they study still fur- 
ther in all these subjects. St. Cyr corresponds to our 
West Point only that it is devoted exclusively to cavalry 
and infantry including only light artillery. The system 
of education in every department of France seems to be 
very thorough and the examinations hard. 

Friday, October 29 

To the opera in the evening to see "William Tell." It 
was very well done. Salomon, the tenor who took the 
part of Arnold, sang splendidly. Madame de Reszke 
had a voice of good quality and great compass, but it 
was cold, as was her acting. The choruses were well 
trained and sang perfectly. I thought the ballet in the 



170 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

last scene very much out of place, for it interrupted the 
thread of the plot and let the interest drop and had 
singularly little to do with the sturdy Swiss of that day 
and occasion. 

Saturday, October 30 

Went to the Institute at Marmier's invitation to hear a 
new musical composition played before the Academy 
and to see the award of some prizes. In two cases prizes 
were awarded to sons of members and the sons, after 
receiving their diplomas for music or art, went up to and 
kissed their fathers on either cheek in the presence of all 
the people. That might appear very simple, spontaneous, 
and affectionate as an impulse of the moment did not 
one know that the programmes were all printed before- 
hand with the names of the successful competitors, and 
that the fathers sat near the president who gave the 
prizes in a convenient place to be kissed. 

Monday, November 1 

To-day is All Saints' Day and we went to the great mass 
at St. Roch, where is said to be the best ecclesiastical 
singing in Paris. The church was pretty well filled and 
people were passing in and out during the service. There 
was no programme distributed and from my neighbors 
I could not find whose mass was being played and 
sung, but it was certainly very grand. As we entered 
there was a tenor solo sung with full, rich chest notes. 
The violins kept up a running accompaniment, and 
after the solo the whole chorus joined in, and after they 
finished the grand organ at the other end took up the 
air and was again answered by chorus, orchestra, and 
smaller echo organ. All over the church were seen 
great numbers of small candles and tapers burning in 



FRENCH POLITICS 171 

the dim light. These were in supplication for the souls 
who are passing through Purgatory. 

Tuesday, November 2 

In the evening went down to the Layas' "little salon." 
There were present Mademoiselle Strada with her 
married sister. Both of these ladies were daughters 
of Marquis Strada, who was a master of horse under 
Louis Philippe, but lost his title and head, I believe, 
in some of the rows since. They were both very pleas- 
ant and dignified, with quiet manners. Monsieur de 
la Rosalie also came. There were music and games of 
words. 

Thursday, November 4 

Had a long talk on French politics in the evening. The 
French are hard to understand. They are not practical 
but theoretical in their politics. They do not act on 
reasoning from the real state of affairs, but are moved 
by certain a 'priori illusions and generalizations and get 
wrought up into states of mind of which we can hardly 
conceive. There are many French of the middle and 
lower classes especially who have an intense hatred of 
having any one over them in State, Church, or even in 
Heaven. There are also several instances of persons of 
this sort who had been crying out for Liberte, Egalite, 
Fraternite, in the press and in public speech, and then as 
soon as they are given office and power have acted in a 
manner more arbitrary than king or emperor would 
dare to do. They take perfumed baths, surround them- 
selves with luxuries, and demand a respect from inferiors 
which just before and as applied to others had been their 
bete noire. 

At present France is more prosperous than ever in her 



172 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

past history. The Republic has suppressed the Com- 
mune without any assistance from king or emperor. 
The measures of the Assembly have been in the main 
wise, yet the French press and very many people are 
calling for a change. The Legitimists, to whose party 
belong the ladies of this family, say the Republic means 
reign of terror, commune, murder and theft; they point 
back to 1789 and 1792, to 1848 and to the last Com- 
mune, but do not notice the present satisfactory state 
of affairs. The Imperialists or Bonapartists form a 
strong party and are quietly watching the growth of 
a youth of nineteen now living near London. (This 
young Prince Napoleon was killed in the Zulu War in 
South Africa, thus giving the final coup de grace to the 
Bonapartists.) 

There is a talk of a dissolution of the Assembly. A 
great deal of this is talk only and makes itself heard 
more by its noise, I believe, than by the number or 
strength of the talkers, but still the discontented ele- 
ments are not few or altogether weak. There is still a 
large number of Communists among both rich and poor 
who desire actual division of property, and the troubles 
and discontent in Paris are sufficient to make the As- 
sembly still think it safer to meet in Versailles, although 
Paris is more convenient for the members and is really 
the capital of the country. The French are quiet enough 
just now externally, but it is said they are in a state in 
which it will take but little to cause an eruption of the 
subterranean fires. It is easy enough to say this, but I 
wonder if there are any great fires really smouldering 
underneath : — whether there is anything more than the 
smoke and small flashes of light caused by cabals and 
political intriguers. 



FRENCH PHYSICIANS 173 

Friday, November 5 

In the evening the Vicomte de Perusse with his wife 
and two daughters called; a very pleasant evening. The 
Vicomte de Perusse thought it very strange that we al- 
lowed physicians to practice in America without having 
passed public examinations. I told him that as a rule 
the people hired only the best doctors who had gradu- 
ated from the best medical schools and if any one prac- 
ticed without sufficient knowledge he could be sued if he 
caused any damage. The Vicomte remarked that it 
would be rather late to sue a physician for malpractice 
when one is dead. The French system must be a great 
advantage to strangers, poor people, and those who have 
no way of judging physicians' ability to know that any 
practicing doctor has at least sound professional knowl- 
edge and training. 

Laya Pere read a scene between Christ and the devil 
from his play. Some parts rather shocked the good 
Catholics but the Vicomte courteously gave an appre- 
ciative purr whenever he thought it possible. Mon- 
sieur Laya is a radical and agnostic if not an atheist. 
I asked one of the daughters, who was still at the 
Sacred Heart Convent, at what age young ladies finish 
their education in Paris. She said that young ladies 
generally left the convents at seventeen or eighteen 
and sometimes even at fifteen, but that when they 
left at fifteen, they usually studied a year or two after- 
wards. 

The Vicomtesse is very bright, lively, and has an in- 
teresting and almost handsome face when lit up in con- 
versation. She was a great friend of Mademoiselle Laya 
when they were at the convent as girls together and 
hence the intimacy. 



174 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Tuesday, November 9 

In Paris there are reminders of the Commune not yet 
removed, such as the Tuileries with its gaping windows 
and blackened walls. These are kept, I suppose, to 
remind the citizens of the dangers of anarchy. Dined 
with the Charles A. Dana family. In the evening a Mr. 
Huntington called. He has lived in Paris twenty years. 
He was here during the Franco-Prussian War and the 
Siege. He said it was only during the last ten days when 
there was any difficulty about food and that then all 
able-bodied persons got on well enough. It was only 
the old, the sick, and the infants who suffered. He wit- 
nessed the tearing down of the Colonne de Vendome. 
It was done peaceably and quietly. During the week of 
barricades he was once entirely shut up in his street, but 
he said the excitement was so prolonged that fires and 
deaths caused him no alarm and that he slept as well as 
ever. 

Paul Dana and I left about ten o'clock and came back 
to the Layas' salon, where we found the room full. We 
had playing, singing, and some original verses read. At 
the reception were Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Perusse 
and their two daughters and several others; in all about 
eighteen. 

Wednesday, November 10 

My father had sent me a letter of introduction to 
Monsieur Laugel, who had asked me to dinner. I dined 
with him this evening and there met Mr. Washburne, 
our American Minister to France, Mr. and Mrs. W. W. 
Story, the American sculptor of Rome, their daughter, 
and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Dicey of London. 

Monsieur Laugel is a writer, the private secretary to 
the Due d'Aumale. He is a publicist of high reputation 



WILLIAM WETMORE STORY 175 

and considerable influence, and his wife, an American, 
is by general consent one of the sanest and cleverest of 
women. 

Story has varied talent. He wrote "The Conflict of 
Laws" and two other valuable law books, so well done 
as often to be attributed to his father, the celebrated 
Judge Joseph Story, of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. He also wrote a collection of poems, some of 
them quite good, and several prose works, as "Roba di 
Roma," £he only one I know. (His daughter, Miss 
Edith Story, afterwards married a Florentine of the old 
family of Peruzzi dei Medici.) Story was very kind and 
cordial to me. Took Miss Story in to dinner. 

During the dinner Sir William Vernon Harcourt was 
discussed. I said from what I could gather while in 
England I did not think, with all his ability, he would 
ever be made Prime Minister. Laugel also thought that 
he had no chance for the place in quiet times, yet in 
times of great excitement or public stress his party 
would look to him on account of his unusual powers. 
Perhaps that might be so, I replied, in case of war or any 
great difficulty with another country, but I thought he 
was too radical to be chosen a leader on any internal 
issues. He had frequently said in the House that he 
wished to destroy primogeniture and entail, and such 
a man with such opinions the English were the last peo- 
ple to trust to settle their home affairs. 

While in England I heard a story, whether true or not 
I cannot say, that a company of three well-known men, 
talking over the unpopularity of certain persons, de- 
cided to write down those whom each thought the most 
unpopular of any distinguished person in Great Britain. 
They did this separately on pieces of paper, folded them 
up, and when opened, it turned out they had all written 
" Sir William Vernon Harcourt." 



176 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

His manners are rather rough on the exterior and he 
is rather careless in expressing his opinion freely of every- 
body and everything without regard to whose feelings 
may be hurt, but I believe him in reality and at bottom 
to be as kind-hearted and as altruistic as he is powerful ; 
indeed, I think his altruism is at the bottom of many of 
his radical opinions. 

Mr. Story says the Italians are overtaxed, their in- 
dustries checked, and all the public funds badly wasted. 
For example, to sell land under a mortgage foreclosure, 
the duty to the Government is twenty-odd per cent. 
There are heavy duties on all buying and selling and the 
income tax, municipal and state, in Florence is forty- 
one per cent; that is, he says that with an income of 
100,000 francs a man has left to spend on himself but 
59,000. There was much interesting conversation on 
French politics. 

I like Monsieur Laugel, for he is very intelligent, 
polite, and self-controlled. He shows, I think, what 
might be made of the French character with its natural 
vivacity, brilliancy, and fire when moderated and held 
in hand. The Storys told me to be sure and see them in 
Rome. 

Thursday, November 11 

At one o'clock went to the French Academy. Sat very 
close to the speakers in the inner circle of all and close 
to the desk. Monsieur le Baron Vieil-Castel presided. 
The order of the readings was: 

1. Report of the perpetual secretary on the work of 
the preceding year. 

%. A poem entitled "Livingstone," by Monsieur 
Emile Guiard. 

3. On "The Price of Virtue," by the President. 



HENRI de BORNIER 177 

The President's address was read very indistinctly. 
The seat on which I sat was made for three, and after it 
was full a little man came in and insisted on sitting next 
to me and crowding us all. He sat on the edge of the 
seat, was fidgety, had rather a bad complexion, and wore 
boots which were much broader at the toes than any- 
where else. I was as polite as possible, but at heart 
could not help feeling a little contempt for the man. 
After the seance Monsieur Marmier presented me to him 
as Henri de Bornier — fifty years old — the author of 
"La Fille de Roland," etc. I was much surprised, for 
his head looked very ordinary as well as his face and 
general appearance. Of course my opinion of him was 
changed as greatly as it was suddenly. "La Fille de 
Roland" is a popular patriotic drama aimed against 
traitors and for the encouragement of devotion to 
country. It has just come out this year. The author's 
name is on everybody's lips. I was presented to the 
secretary also, who promised to give me a ticket to the 
Theatre Francais. 

Saturday, November 13 

In the evening went to the Comedie Frangaise (the same 
as the Theatre Francais) on ticket given me by Monsieur 
le Secretaire through the request of Monsieur Marmier. 
Three pieces were played: "Tartuffe," by Moliere, 
"Julie," by Octave Feuillet, and "Les Deux Menages." 
Mademoiselle Jonassain took the part of Madame 
Pernette in the first piece, Mademoiselle Favart, Julie 
in the second, supported by Febvre. The third piece 
was a light comedy and had no celebrated actors. Only 
one actor appeared in any two of the plays. The num- 
ber of actors they have to draw from must be very great; 
twenty-two took part this night and only two of these 



178 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

acted in the "Demi-Monde" the other night. All three 
plays had the not uncommon French plot — incon- 
stancy of some sort, yet, as in most of the best plays, 
none of the interest is made to come from the vulgar 
side, but from remorse, anger, jealousy, mystery, and 
revenge in tragedy, and in comedy, the discovery. The 
acting was perfect. In the ordinary scenes the actors 
talked in quiet, natural tones, suitable to the occasion 
and just as one would hear in a drawing-room, at table, 
in the garden, or wherever it might be. Strutting, strid- 
ing, unnatural voice such as some of the best English 
actors, even Henry Irving, affect, do not exist here, and 
yet in suitable scenes there is plenty of action. But, in 
general, the best actors seem to prefer to express the 
most violent fear, remorse, or hatred by but little 
bodily motion; there is a reserve of action, a half ges- 
ture, a rigid stare, or an uncertain step. There is 
very little hair pulled out. They do not tear to tatters; 
they spare their own heads and the stage boards and 
furniture. 

Sunday, November 14 

In the afternoon called on Monsieur Marmier who gave 
me his poems, a private edition copy. Evening at home. 
Monsieur Laya, hearing that I had gone to the Hotel des 
Invalides earlier in the day, told the story of the visitor 
who, having seen the old soldiers with the "jambes de 
bois" and "bras de bois," asked where were the men 
with the " tete de bois," and was answered : "Les hommes 
avec les tetes de bois sont a FH6tel de Ville parmi 
les conseillers." That suggested the English story of 
securing block pavement for the streets by putting to- 
gether the aldermen's heads. 



LAUGEL ON THE ASSEMBLY 179 

Tuesday, November 16 

Called on Monsieur Laugel after lunch. The ladies 
were out, but Monsieur Laugel was at home. I enjoyed 
the call hugely and only wished I had more opportuni- 
ties to meet so interesting a man as Laugel and were 
able to take down accurately more of what he said. He 
was at the Assembly lately during the discussion of the 
"scrutin" and said that the " arrondissement " — that 
is, voting in small districts, each electing one member, 
which was adopted on that reading — he thinks will be 
adopted finally and will give a more conservative As- 
sembly, for then the country members will have more 
chance, for each district will be likely to send its promi- 
nent man, while by the "scrutin de liste," or electing 
many members from large districts, it would be possible 
to elect as country constituents candidates unknown to 
whole sections of voters. 

He also liked the method of electing senators. The 
only difficulty was that the Senate would be too large, 
having from 350 to 450 members. The municipal gov- 
ernments, he said, by whom the senators were to be 
elected, were responsible, dignified bodies of men with 
other important functions to perform. The senators are 
to go out by thirds as with us and to be elected for five- 
year terms — rather an odd number of years to divide by 
three. He was, on the whole, very much encouraged by 
the wisdom and good sense of the Assembly. He still 
thought there may perhaps be further trouble, though he 
hoped that he had good reason to believe not. He said 
the French were excitable and often unreasonable. 

He said there was no real cause for the late Commune. 
The leaders knew that they could not succeed and only 
hoped to get off before they were captured. It was a 
great mistake to think that the Commune was, as some 



180 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

supposed, "patriotism gone mad," but he said that the 
leaders had communications with the Prussians. Dur- 
ing the Communist conscription his servant saved his 
house and valuables by saying that she was not sure 
but that Monsieur Laugel was a German, for he was 
born in Alsace. The Communists never touched any- 
thing which belonged to the Prussians, and what is 
more their leaders invited a large number of Prussian 
officers to be present at the pulling down of the column 
in the Place Vendome. He said a friend of his has the 
order signed in due form for so many carriages to be at 
the railroad station to take the "Prussian officers" to 
the Place Vendome and back. The communication with 
the Prussians was constant. They caused damage to 
Paris and made the Commune the scapegoat. 

He said that the bank escaped pillage because the 
leaders of the Commune were bribed and the others did 
not know how to break in without being directed by 
leaders and without being supplied with the proper tools. 
The Commune, he repeated, was wholly unreasonable 
and was without any hope of success in any respect. 
The whole thing was like a set of schoolboys off for a 
"bat"; they knew that they would be punished, but 
wanted to be as wicked as they could when they had a 
chance. 

In the evening the Layas had their reception, but not 
so many people as at the last. A Monsieur Rosalie 
played on a kind of French horn about two feet in 
diameter with eight or ten twists. It was played with 
the lips at the small end and the hand at the large 
end, with no stops of any kind. It was a very sweet 
instrument. His mother played delightfully on the 
piano. 



THE VICOMTESSE de PfiRUSSE 181 

Wednesday, November 17 

Note from Monsieur Marmier enclosing a letter of 
introduction to the secretary of the President of the 
French National Assembly at Versailles, where I shall 
go on the first pleasant day of next week. 

Friday, November 19 

In the afternoon went to the great Franco-American 
affair at the Palais de l'lndustrie. It was too late to 
hear the speeches, but heard the singing and music. In 
the evening the Vicomtesse de Perusse was at dinner 
at the Layas' and a Mr. Knox, an Englishman whom 
I had already met. It was Madame Laya's fete day; 
not her birthday, but the day of her patron saint. After 
dinner the Vicomte de Perusse and his two daughters 
came in. The Vicomtesse charming as usual and ready 
to do anything for Madame and Mademoiselle Laya. 
She has delightful manners, speaks the best French with 
a distinct pronunciation, is very clever and a devout 
Catholic. Neither of her daughters is as clever as her- 
self, but they are sensible, intelligent, above the average 
in looks, and well behaved, cultivated, and religious. 

Saturday, November 20 

This evening went to the Opera Comique which is not 
in the least comic, but has, in fact, many of the best 
operas played, has always some great singers, and is 
under government patronage. The opera was "Le Val 
d'Andore." Madame Chapuy took the principal part, 
Rose de Mai, and sang and acted splendidly. The opera 
was very touching and very nearly tragic but for an un- 
expected ending. I went by invitation with Mademoiselle 
Laya to the Vicomtesse's box. 



182 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Monday, November 22 

In the morning went to the Messe Annuelle de Ste. 
Cecile at the church St. Eustache. The church, at half 
an hour before the service, was almost "as full as an 
egg," and many persons had been there for two and a 
half hours to secure seats. I could not get a good one 
and had to pay a franc for the one I got. The mass was 
composed by Weber and was directed by Monsieur E. 
Deldevez. At the offertory Monsieur I. Cargin, the 
most celebrated violinist in France, played; the organist 
was Monsieur E. Batiste, and the leading solo singers 
were Messieurs Hottin and Proust. A beautiful hymn to 
Ste. Cecile by Gounod was sung. 

During the service a contribution was taken up in 
person by Madame General MacMahon, the wife of 
the President, a handsome, dignified, and beautifully 
dressed lady. She and her young lady companion, each 
attended by a gentleman, went round the church, in all 
the crowd and during all the prayers and praises, to get 
money for poor musicians and their orphans and 
widows. The music was indeed grand and impressive 
and sounded superbly in that large church. Oh, "the 
height, the space, the gloom, the glory" ! After the serv- 
ice was over I went round the church and came un- 
expectedly upon the tomb of Colbert. It seemed like a 
new discovery. It struck me with delight to come across 
something connected with one I had read of and cared 
about in history, not being directed to it by guide-book 
or custodian. 

Tuesday, November 23 

In the evening Madame Laya had her usual little salon. 
The Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Perusse and two 
daughters, and two daughters of Marquis Strada, one 



A QUEER AMERICAN WOMAN 183 

married and one not, and among others a very odd 
American woman. When this latter entered the room 
my heart sank within me for fear of the reputation she 
would give my countrywomen. She was tall, rather 
stout, nearly fifty, I should say, but with dress and hair 
done like a young lady of twenty- three. "She dressed 
like twenty, but looked like sixty." She had too much 
paint on her face, spoke in a loud voice, wore the ex- 
treme decolletee fashion, and was plainly common and 
eccentric. She invited herself to the reception, so 
Madame Laya said, immediately upon being intro- 
duced by an English lady. Altogether she did and said 
so many strange things that she made me blush for my 
country, and the good French people stared in amaze- 
ment. 

She had left her husband in New York, her children 
in Germany, and is in Paris, as she says, to "amuse her- 
self." It is by such women that foreigners judge Ameri- 
can society. These queer people inform their new ac- 
quaintances that they are of the best families; of the 
"high aristocracy" of America; and the poor foreigners 
swallow this information with astonishing credulity 
and afterwards tell their friends of the Americaine, so 
none but the most eccentric get talked about and it 
becomes generally believed that our American society 
is made up of just such people; while the well-bred, 
cultivated Americans escape observation altogether. 
But for the constant dread as to what next my country- 
woman would say or do, the evening passed off very 
pleasantly. 

Thursday, November 25 

Delivered letters to Mr. Healey's family in Paris. 

Mr. Healey was in Chicago. Called also on the Vi- 



184 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

comte de Chabrol, who unfortunately was in Italy. 
Healey is an American artist and celebrated portrait 
painter who has painted so many distinguished Eu- 
ropeans, including royalty as well as Americans and 
English, and is a bright talker, with a large fund of 
anecdotes. The Vicomte de Chabrol, when in America 
some years ago, was considered the best possible speci- 
men of a young noble. It was he who at our house in- 
sisted on giving the "pas" to Agassiz, and when Agas- 
siz said, "I recognize your rank," replied, "What have I 
to offer to merit but rank? " I also called on Monsieur 
Marmier who was out, but I met him afterwards in the 
rue du Bac and had a short talk with him. Made ar- 
rangements to go to Versailles to-morrow to witness the 
National Assembly which has recently convened. 

I omit all mention of the many pleasant meetings with 
American friends while in Paris and of all the usual 
sight-seeing. 



CHAPTER XII 
FRENCH ASSEMBLY AND LAST DAYS IN PARIS 

Friday, November 26 

Left the Havre station at half -past eleven for Versailles 
to "assist," as the French say, at the Assembly or 
National French Parliament. Arrived at twelve. At 
Versailles walked to the Palace. The town was stupid, 
dreary, and dirty. At the market the peasants, with 
their broad, clumsy figures and dull but rosy faces, were 
packing up their carts to go home or selecting some hats, 
clothes, or other articles in neighboring booths. The 
double rows of leafless trees on each side of the Boule- 
vard de la Heine were uninviting and dismal enough, 
but must be quite beautiful in spring and summer. In 
the Place d'Armes were drilling a few small squads of 
recruits, some of them without guns. The sun, which 
had broken through the clouds, was drawing the frost 
from the ground, making the air damp and chilly and 
the walking muddy. 

Arrived at the chateau about twenty minutes after 
twelve and was told that Monsieur le Secretaire would 
not arrive till after one. In the meanwhile I visited the 
historical museum and saw the pictures and portraits. 
The pictures of Louis Philippe have no frames while 
those of Napoleon III retain them with the imperial 
arms. I used up all my spare hour in the museum and 
had but a moment to glance at a part of the park. 

Monsieur the chief secretary of the President of the 
Assembly, whom I had met at lunch with Monsieur 
Marmier, paid the greatest respect to Marmier's letter. 
He said that the only place which was at his disposal he 



186 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

would most happily give me, but that it was not very 
good. I was conducted by a liveried servant up, and 
up, and when very near the stars of heaven, I was led 
into a little dusty, dark, unfurnished room where one 
had to take the greatest care not to stumble over some 
uneven steps. When I got accustomed to the dark I 
found that there was an iron grating on one side with 
some high-backed, uncomfortable benches behind the 
grating. This grating opened into the Assembly, close 
to the ceiling. 

The present room for the meetings of the Assembly is 
a perfect theatre; in fact, it is the Salle de Spectacle 
built by Louis XV. The President of the Assembly oc- 
cupied the stage. In front of his desk are some secre- 
taries and reporters, and in front of them all and between 
the President and the members, about where the foot- 
lights would be on a stage, is the "tribune," or sort of 
rostrum from which the speakers address the house, for 
the members are not allowed to speak from their respec- 
tive seats or from the floor as in the British Parliament 
or Am erican Congress, but have to mount this tribune 
to speak when recognized by the President of the As- 
sembly. The members occupy the ground floor or pit, 
while the galleries are filled with spectators, and ladies 
are allowed in full view and not kept behind a grating as 
in the English Parliament. 

I was in my perch before the seance began. The gal- 
leries were crowded to repletion with spectators, for it is 
the third reading of the 14th article of the Constitution; 
the great question of whether it should be "scrutin 
d'arrondissement" or "scrutin de liste." The President 
entered a little after two and called the house to order. 
Very few members appeared at the ringing of the bell, 
but as soon as the speaking began, they poured in from 



A MEETING OF THE ASSEMBLY 187 

the lobbies. The first to address the house was a near- 
sighted, elderly man, who had to hold his manuscript so 
close to his face that few could have heard him even if all 
were silent and trying to listen, while in the noise and 
confusion that actually existed, not one, even the near- 
est, pretended to take in a word he was saying. The 
man, however, persevered and read to the end of the last 
leaf of his manuscript, to his own great relief, I am sure. 
That long and doubtless carefully prepared speech was 
not written to affect the house, but for his own constitu- 
ents at home, to appear the next morning in the country 
newspaper; that is, he was talking to "Buncombe." 

The next member to get up was from the extreme 
Left — the left of the President, that is — from the 
radical side, and occupied about fifteen minutes. A few 
of his friends left their seats, stood near the tribune, and 
patted the man on the back when he had finished. He 
was evidently a man of no general influence, for the mem- 
bers, with the exception of these few friends, went on 
talking and writing and some even discussing loudly 
with each other, gesticulating vehemently and not lis- 
tening at all to the speaker. I could hear nothing but 
occasionally a ringing of the President's bell and the 
tapping of his hammer or gavel. I could see the mem- 
ber who was speaking open and shut his mouth, turn 
over his sheets of manuscript, gesticulate, and drink 
sugar and water. I may say that they allow speaking 
from manuscript, which is not allowed in the English 
Parliament excepting for mere reference for data, per- 
mitted to Cabinet officers. 

The third speaker was a young marquis of about 
twenty-five years of age. Before he began the President 
made a short address, begging the members to come to 
order. This young man made no less than four begin- 



188 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

nings, three times giving up in despair of getting the 
attention of the members. The fourth time he went 
bravely on without it. Towards the end of his speech he 
made some personal remarks and accused the Left of 
some political crimes. That awakened some attention 
and called forth angry replies. One gray-haired repub- 
lican got furious at something the marquis had said and 
made a rush for the tribune. He was held back by some 
of his friends. While flushed and heated he nearly burst 
with epithets against the young marquis, who had not 
been very wise in his language and who had more spirit 
than discretion. The poor President of the Assembly, 
what was he to do? He had already rung his bell four 
times during the last speech, had already besought the 
house to be more quiet, and had kept up such a con- 
tinual tapping with his hammer that I ceased counting 
the number of times. The young speaker got more 
excited and the extreme Left also, until the President 
had to stop the speaking and talk to the house for about 
five minutes. The members listened in a casual manner 
to the President, but he has not a strong voice or a com- 
manding personality and does not in the least know how 
to control a body of men. He was like a poor rider on a 
fiery and unruly horse. There was really a storm in the 
house. The members shouted out not only to question, 
but to interrupt the speaker with counter-argument, 
and several times in a passion such as I never saw in any 
intelligent Anglo-Saxon unless I except the case of poor 
Plimsoll. So great had become the disorder and con- 
fusion at this time that the President of the Assembly 
threatened to dissolve the session unless order was at 
once restored. 

After this young marquis finished, I had the good 
fortune to see Gambetta, the great orator and leader of 



A SPEECH BY GAMBETTA 189 

the Left, mount the tribune. The Assembly immedi- 
ately quieted down and listened to him with the greatest 
attention, " Conticuere omnes intentaque or a tenebant." 
He began his speech in a quiet, calm, slow manner and 
almost conversational voice, after having waited for the 
attention of the house for a minute, which seemed to be 
as long as five. He is blessed with good vocal organs and 
has an easy and distinct utterance. He has a broad, 
commanding figure, and a "lion head" which he threw 
back at emphatic moments. His speech was not at all 
radical or extreme, and the whole trend of his address 
was more conservative than I had expected. He ex- 
plained clearly how the "scrutin de liste" was less open 
to corruption than the other, for in order to get any one 
person elected it was necessary to influence ten times 
the number of voters that would be required under the 
"arrondissement" plan. 

(I believe there is no general rule applicable to all 
constituencies and that in the country districts the 
"scrutin d'arrondissement," as Laugel, who knew the 
farming region believed, is the best, and that in the cities 
or large districts including parts of cities, the "scrutin de 
liste" would work to the greatest advantage.) 

Gambetta read some words of Monsieur Buffet, the 
Premier, from the records of the Assembly, expressing an 
opinion different from that which he, Buffet, now holds, 
and he ended by demanding of the Ministry whether they 
were going to interfere in the elections through the con- 
trol of the civil service. 

In parts of his speech Gambetta was intensely earnest 
and spoke in generalities of his love for France. He was 
very eloquent and his most eloquent passages were ex- 
citing, in that he spoke at the very top of his voice and 
gesticulated in a manner that would be absurd for any 



190 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

but a Frenchman, making movements with his fingers, 
hands, arms, and whole body so fast that it was hard to 
follow them, and he spoke no less rapidly. It was not the 
controlled, well-regulated indignation which seems all 
the more powerful for being a little repressed ; but he let 
his feelings go away with him entirely at times so that we 
seemed to see all there was of them. There was nothing 
held in reserve. He was always able to control himself 
after these outbursts. As to his gestures, his whole arms 
revolved like the sails of a windmill. 

Monsieur Buffet, the Premier, got up and answered 
this speech. He spoke of the advantages of the " scrutin 
d'arrondissement " in a plain, logical way and said what 
he had to say slowly and distinctly, with few gestures 
and little excitement. He did not answer, so I observed, 
the question of interference by the Government at the 
elections through its civil service employees. 

One man who next tried to speak found the noise so 
great that he gave up before he had gone far and de- 
scended, but when at the bottom of the steps, regretted 
having stopped, and for some moments was undecided 
whether to go back and mount the tribune again or not, 
and at last gave it up altogether. 

At another time a member desired to speak out of turn 
and tried to mount the tribune. The President called 
for the "sufferance of the house," or what I suppose we 
would call "unanimous consent," but that was lost. 
However, the man, who was in a great temper, went on 
speaking to those about him, for two minutes nearly, 
from the steps of the tribune, and when made to step 
down from them, kept on talking for some time after- 
wards from the floor. I heard Monsieur Buffet speak a 
second time. He was again listened to with respect and 
attention. 



SARAH BERNHARDT AS A YOUNG ACTRESS 191 

The angry and passionate remarks were not confined 
to the Left, but some of the Legitimists and Imperial- 
ists were equally out of order, though the Left was the 
most noisy. In one of the wrangles I thought a man's 
coat would be torn off his back, but the material was 
too strong to yield. The good speeches were always 
clapped by the favoring party. The seance broke up a 
few minutes past seven, after a division of the house. 

Saturday, November 27 

Called again on Monsieur Marmier and found him at 
home. We talked together for some time, about twenty 
minutes, and almost all the conversation was in French. 
His little, fiery, black dog has become quite friendly to 
me now. He rarely makes friends and is very jealous, in 
great contrast to his dear, kind master. 

At home we had a nearly dinner, quarter after six, 
for Monsieur Laya had had a box at the Theatre 
Frangais given him by the management, on account of 
his father, the celebrated play-writer. There were four 
places and they were kind enough to make me the fourth 
of the party. The plays were "Marcel," which we 
missed, "Philosophe sans le Savoir," by Sedaine, and 
"Bataille des Dames," by Scribi and Legouve. 

Got acted in the last scene. He is the most celebrated 
actor in the theatre by general consent, and yet in the 
"Demi-Monde" the other day he took an inferior, stiff, 
and stupid part. His part to-night was totally different, 
being rather comic. The two pieces were very good, 
both interesting and clean. Madame Brohan acted one 
part admirably, but though a famous actress she was 
rather too stout for the part. In one of the plays in the 
Comedie Frangaise there was a young actress, tall, 
slender, taking a minor part, that of a servant who had 



192 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

become interested in the young man of the house to a 
greater extent than she realized. Her expression of 
emotion without a single gesture, when she heard of his 
engagement to be married, was some of the best acting 
I have ever seen. She is the most promising of the 
young actresses, they say, and her name is Sarah Bern- 
hardt. 

Sunday, November 28 

At ten-thirty heard the Archbishop of Paris preach in 
St. Philippe a special sermon to young men. The Arch- 
bishop was rather infirm, though not very old, and had 
a very earnest manner. He had shown great courage 
in the Commune. He sat down while preaching, only 
standing for the benediction. His sermon was interest- 
ing, but on no one train of thought. There were too 
many ideas to leave any one decided impression. 

About five in the afternoon called on the Vicomte de 
Perusse and his family, who receive Sundays. They 
live in the Faubourg St. Germain, 74 rue de FUniver- 
site, on what we should call the third story of the apart- 
ments, but which the French called "au second," or 
even "au premier," by counting the first story as the 
"sous sol" and the second as the "entre sol." To get to 
the parlor, which was comfortable, cozy, and well fur- 
nished, it was necessary to pass through the dining- 
room; an inconvenience not uncommon, especially in the 
old part of Paris. A pleasant call of about three quar- 
ters of an hour. The father and mother of Madame de 
Perusse were there; both are very intelligent. The 
father knows a good deal about America, although he 
has never visited it. He and his wife had been great 
favorites at the court of Napoleon III. In the evening 
I dined with Mrs. Healey and family. 



JEAN LOUIS LAYA 193 

Monday, November 29 

In the evening the Lay as took me to see the "Due Job," 
a play written by Monsieur Laya's father, Jean Louis 
Laya (1761-1833), and acted at the Frangais. The Layas 
had a nice box given them. We arrived in the mid- 
dle of "Philberte," a curtain-raiser by Angier. The plot 
of the "Due Job" is interesting and simple. The suc- 
cess of the piece (and it was successful, for it gained the 
author $40,000 and even now draws large houses) lay 
very much in the sentiment and in the wit and nicety 
of language. The elder Laya wrote some plays with a 
democratic tendency and for a while had to keep in 
hiding, under Charles X and Louis Philippe, but the 
public demand for his plays and presence was such that 
the authorities had to allow his reappearance and the 
presentation of his plays. In the "Due Job," Got was 
the principal actor. 

Wednesday, December 1 

In the evening went to the theatre again in a box given 
to the Layas. The second box to the right held the 
secretary in chief of the Bank of France, and among 
others a marquise of the best society and who was known 
to the Layas. 

Once, while the curtain was down, all the house was 
startled by hearing loud and angry voices from the or- 
chestra chairs, which were answered by similar cries 
from the upper, the fourth gallery. They told me that 
they were very like the disturbances in theatres just 
before a revolution. The noise was not made by boys, 
but by men, some of them past middle life, some even 
gray-haired. The noise continued for some time and was 
allowed to die out of itself, its authors not even being 
spoken to by the police. The theatre was the Chatelet 



194 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

and the play a very exciting drama with guns fired off, 
prisoners tortured, horses running about the stage, and 
numerous assassinations committed. I think it was 
called the "Moulin." 

Friday, December 3 

Sent some roses to Monsieur Marmier as I learned it 

was his fete day; the day of his patron saint Xavier. 

In the evening went to the opera and saw "Don 
Juan" with the following wonderful cast: 

Dona Anna Mile. Kraus 

Dona Elvire Mme. Gueymard 

Zerline Mme. Carvalho [the best 

singer in France] 
Don Juan Faure [the greatest baritone 

in France, if not in Europe] 
Leporello Gailhard 

Don Ottavio Vergnet 

Mazetto Caron 

It was the greatest opera of the season. The ball scene 
in the second act exceeded not only anything I had ever 
seen, but anything I had ever imagined, in the beauty 
of the halls, in the richness and harmony of costumes, 
and of the whole taken all together. This tout ensemble 
of coloring is a thing never lost sight of by the French. 
There were no inharmonious dresses brought near to- 
gether. 

Sunday, December 5 

Monsieur Marmier called. He said that he was dis- 
obeying his physician, who advised his staying at home 
on account of a cold, but that he wanted to thank me 
for the flowers I had sent him. I was very glad I sent 
them, for he was touched by the attention. He is, I 



MONSIEUR MARMIER 195 

fear, often lonely, for he has no family and no near 
relatives in Paris. He certainly has been most kind and 
devoted to me, of course on Longfellow's account, but 
I think his warm heart has taken me in too. 

Tuesday, December 7 

Went to Monsieur Marmier's by appointment. He had 
offered to go with me to buy some books. Before going 
he gave me another of his publications called the 
"Voyage du Nord." It was an early edition, now out of 
print, and as not many like it were published, it is, or 
may become, rare. He also gave me, to read on the 
train, a paper edition of Shakespeare's "Henry VIII" 
in French. When about to dress, his little dog brought 
his things, disappearing into another room in search of 
them and then laying them one by one at his master's 
feet, who rewarded his little pet with some sugar, a 
kindly smile and pleasant words, which latter were not 
lost even on the dog. 

In walking the streets Marmier took my arm until his 
hand was so cold that he had to put it in his pocket. We 
had some difficulty in finding the books I wanted, for 
some new editions were coming out soon and the book- 
sellers had sold off almost all the old ones. Marmier 
advised me to go to Egypt directly from Marseilles. 
He said December was the best month in Egypt. While 
talking to me about the pyramids, he stopped in the 
street and lifted up his foot to illustrate climbing the 
high steps. At another time he kicked out to show how 
the donkeys did it. He is so very simple and friendly! 
As I left him at the entrance to the Academy I felt I 
should rarely meet a man just like him, so gentle, so 
kindly, and so true. 

Called on Madame Mohl. She did not remember who 



196 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

I was at first, but when I reminded her, she was very- 
kind and pleasant. She is a small, absent-minded 
woman, very intent on what interests her and oblivious 
of everything else. Her husband had been very ill and 
had lost his brother, so I had not seen them for some 
time. She regretted that she had not been able to offer 
me more society. Called on the Vicomte de Perusse, 
but all were out, so I left my P.P.C.'s. 

In the evening called on Monsieur Laugel, where were 
Mrs. Dicey, Mr. Henry James, the author, and some 
others; among them was a young American who had 
recently graduated at Cambridge, England. There was 
no noteworthy conversation notwithstanding James, 
except that a French officer said that soldiers in battle 
often have compunction about firing upon an enemy, 
and gave some instances to prove his case. The idea 
was entirely new to me, though I could understand they 
might have that feeling until they had been fired upon 
once and some of their number had been shot. Then I 
should imagine that they would retaliate with fury, 
which, however, is not inconsistent with what he stated, 
for he instanced the opening of fire and not the return- 
ing of it. I learned that the Laugels had called on Mon- 
sieur Mohl just after I had. 

Wednesday, December 8 

I found that I had delivered a letter of introduction to 
the wrong Vicomte de Chabrol, who, on his return from 
Italy two days ago, wrote me a kind note explaining the 
mistake, enclosing the letter, and offering to be of any 
service to me. The letter was for his cousin, whose name 
was not in the Paris directory because he lives in Ver- 
sailles. I wrote a note to the Paris Vicomte de Chabrol 
thanking him for his kindness, but saying I was on the 



A STORY ABOUT THE DUC de PRASLIN 197 

point of leaving Paris and could not avail myself of his 
friendly offers. By this mistake I lost the chance of 
seeing a man for whom my father had no little admira- 
tion and who had been a guest at my father's in Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts. He doubtless would have en- 
tertained me and given me a chance to see other inter- 
esting and distinguished Frenchmen. 

The Vicomtesse de Perusse at dinner. She was bright 
and cheerful as usual. She gave a rather bad account 
of French society in general. 

Monsieur Laya told us a story about the Due de 
Praslin. He said that on the day of the news of the death 
of the Due de Praslin, which opportunely occurred in 
prison just a few days before the Duke was to have been 
hanged or guillotined for the murder of his wife, he, 
Laya, was passing by the prison and mentioned to the 
coachman the news. In the ensuing conversation with 
the driver, the driver said that he and several of his 
associates were in a tavern near by playing cards about 
two in the morning, when they heard wheels, and on 
going noiselessly out, saw a carriage approaching the 
door of the prison, from which a man came out who 
entered the carriage and drove off. The coachman gave 
a description of the man who had thus left the prison 
and Monsieur Laya said that it exactly suited the Duke, 
whom he had often seen. The coachman said that a 
coffin was also brought out of the same door from the 
prison not long after. From various answers to his cross- 
questioning, Monsieur Laya thought the driver had 
told the truth. 

The Vicomtesse de Perusse gave me a letter of 
introduction to her sister, Baronne Haoverman, in 
Naples, who, she says, will show me the best society in 
that city. 



198 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Among the distinguished men I saw in Paris and who 
called on me was Carlos Calvo y Capdevila, a corre- 
sponding member of the Institute. We had some inter- 
esting talk on many topics of the day, not without their 
educational value to me. 



CHAPTER Xin 

ATHENS BY WAY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN — 

BRITISH AMBASSADOR — THE ROYAL BALL 

AND SCALING THE ACROPOLIS 

Fkom Paris I went to Athens by way of Lyons, Avignon, 
Aries, Nimes, Marseilles, Nice, Mentone, Monte Carlo, 
the Cornice Road, Genoa, and Leghorn, and from the 
latter place by boat to Naples, Palermo, Messina, and 
Taormina. 

Sunday, December 12 

As we passed Orange on the road to Avignon, a young 
Frenchman told me that they played an opera in the 
summer of '74 in the Roman theatre, which is wonder- 
fully preserved, and that the acoustic properties were so 
good that, though much larger than the modern thea- 
tres and though all out of doors, one heard perfectly 
well even from the most remote seats. 

Wednesday, December 15. Marseilles 
At the old port the scene was a busy and interesting one. 
Nothing seems more lively and prosperous than men 
actively at work on the docks, loading and unloading 
merchandise on or from ships. However, grain, for ex- 
ample, was handled in this place in a good old-fash- 
ioned way, not with one of our new-fangled grain ele- 
vators, but taken out of the hold a sackful at a time by 
men, who emptied the sacks on to the wharves. From 
this pile baskets were filled, containing about two thirds 
of a bushel, with no other implements than the baskets 
and the hands of the men. The baskets were then 



200 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

taken and emptied into sieves hung from three poles 
at their joint. Without going further into the details, it 
is enough to say that the whole process required a large 
number of persons to handle a small amount of grain. 
Their wages are low, but how could they be otherwise; 
for if all the extra value put into the handling of that 
wheat had to be divided among forty instead of among 
six, let us say, as in America, how could each of the 
forty be as well paid or capital receive as much as in our 
country? This is an illustration of how we can afford to 
pay higher wages without increased cost of production. 

Thursday, December 16 

Still at Marseilles. Took a row with an old boatman 
about the harbor. I found it hard to understand him, 
for he spoke provincial French and used many nautical 
terms, but one thing he made quite plain to me, and 
that was that he and his fellow-countrymen were all 
saving money and putting it into government bonds so 
that the French might be able some day to whip the 
Germans. The feeling over the defeat is still very bitter. 

Saturday, December 18 

At last I am walking on the celebrated Cornice Road 
from Nice to Mentone, which I have so often pictured 
to myself, and the reality is not disappointing. I was 
never before so high above and yet in sight of the sea. 
The horizon does not seem to keep its old low level, but 
rises with one until the sea seems like a great mountain 
opposite. It is no wonder that the Athenians looking 
from their hills said that the ships avafiaCvovcri, — go 
up, — as they saw them sail off towards the lofty hori- 
zon. The blue of the Mediterranean exceeded anything 
I have ever seen in variety, harmony, and delicacy of 



THE CORNICE ROAD 201 

color. The blue was not so dark or deep a blue as I have 
seen at times at Manchester, on the north shore of 
Massachusetts Bay, but it was far less hard and cold. 

Before I had gone far clouds began to come up and 
the shadows cast on mountain, shore, and sea were won- 
derful and bewildering. I saw some clouds which were 
below the level between my eyes and the horizon. The 
water had so many different shades and the line of the 
horizon in that direction so cut off by these clouds that 
it gave the effect of making the whole sea seem like 
clouds itself. 

The heights above were also grand and the grandeur 
was not in the least diminished by an occasional misty 
cloud pouring down between the heights, dimming the 
top of the mountain so close and so steep that it ap- 
peared to go up and up and never to end, but merely to 
be lost to sight in infinity. 

Sunday, December 19 

While at Mentone I called on Sir William Heathcote of 
Hursley Park, England, who is here for the winter with 
his family. He has been ill, I was sorry to learn, and 
came to the Riviera to recuperate. He said he was 
better, but he did not look to me strong, not as strong 
as Lady Heathcote, nor as well as when last September 
he was so kind to me. 

Monday, December 20 

When in Paris Miss Hammond (afterwards Mrs. Dr. 
William Appleton of Boston) had asked me to risk 
twenty francs for her on the roulette table at Monaco. 
Accordingly, I took four five-franc pieces and put them 
one after another on the table, choosing the double 
zero. The first and second and third were lost, but to 



202 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

my delight, at the fourth upturned the double zero, and 
quite a pile of gold was pushed toward me. The double 
zero turns up but seldom, but when it does, the winnings 
are large. An old, withered lady, dressed in black, 
started to grab this pile with harpy-like fingers, but the 
croupier apparently knew her, was on the watch, and 
declared that the money was mine. I then felt the true 
gambler's spirit come over me; I was trembling with 
excitement. My first impulse was to risk more, but I 
was determined to stop right then and there, so I put 
the winnings in my pocket, walked away from the table, 
and the next day bought with them a draft to Miss 
Hammond's order in Paris and enclosed it with a note 
of congratulation. 

The name of the steamer I took at Leghorn for 
Athens was the Simeto. At Palermo, where we stopped 
for several days, the brigandage was so prevalent and so 
close to the city that we were not allowed to go to the 
celebrated church and monastery at Monreale, only a 
few miles distant. 

Saturday, January 1, 1876 

At Messina for the beginning of the year, which I cele- 
brated by a trip to one of the seven most beautiful 
places in the world, Taormina. Messina is a commercial 
and rather uninteresting city. It had been almost 
totally destroyed in 1783 by earthquake and had since 
been rebuilt. The streets of Taormina, excepting one 
broad one running through the middle of the town, 
were very narrow, several only four or five feet wide. 
There were no carriages about, not even mule carts (none 
of the pretty, brightly painted Sicilian carriages that 
came in later, after a road was built). 
While we were in the celebrated Greco-Roman thea- 



SICILY 203 

tre the sun went down to the right of iEtna and lighted 
with a pink tinge the smoke which was slowly pouring 
up from the top into the sky above. The mountain was 
covered with snow. It made, with the blue sea to the left 
and some intermediate flat land, a marvelous picture, 
framed between arches of the old ruins, with flowers, 
grass, and weeds growing on the top and in the crevices, 
altogether a scene so glorious as to make one's pulses 
beat with joy. After dinner we went down by another 
path and as we looked back, we saw in the moonlight the 
Norman battlements on the southern cliff of the town. 
On leaving Messina we sailed round the southern end 
of Greece. A Frenchman aboard, who came from Nice 
and had stayed in Greece for over a year, said the Greeks 
were very poor, proud, dirty, and ignorant, that every 
Grecian man confidently expected to be Prime Minister 
some day, and could talk for hours on politics, but always 
on personal politics. The officials, he said, always 
robbed and a man was thought stupid and bete if, when 
in office, from Prime Minister downward, he did not 
make the most of his opportunities (perhaps no worse 
than some of President Grant 's Cabinet who were later 
convicted) , He said the elections were not fair — that 
many were kept from voting by the military. He said 
he had traveled in the interior and seen the battle-fields. 
It made me quite sad when he said of Thebes that there 
was "absolument rien, rien, rien — rien." I could not 
help thinking of the "Antigone" and "(Edipus Tyran- 
nus," and of how not a trace was left of the city where 
lived the persons of those great tragedies. A Belgian 
aboard told me that the work on all the railways in 
Turkey was done by other than Turks. He said the 
Herzegovinians were strong and industrious, but very 
haughty and hard to rule except by kindness. 



204 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Wednesday, January 5 

We arrived at the port of Piraeus during the night and 
in the dark had passed the island of Salamis. There was 
much delay in getting my baggage through the custom- 
house. I had nothing dutiable and had so declared and 
was ready to have trunks opened and examined. It was 
evident from their actions that the custom-house officers 
were looking for bribes. Never had I bribed a govern- 
ment official and I did not want to begin, though I was 
told by some of my fellow-passengers and by the officers 
of the ship that the Athenian custom employees had 
no salaries and lived wholly on tips and bribes. This 
seemed so incredible that I could hardly believe it, but 
I was assured from various sources, including a Travel- 
ers' Agency, that this was true. 

Drove to Athens along the ancient road from the port 
of Piraeus, now well macadamized but minus the old 
walls. Not even a ruin or trace of them was to be seen 
aboveground. Here I am at last in Athens! How one 
sides with this city in all her past history! I felt very 
blue to think that the stupid Spartans had ever pulled 
down the long walls and ruined the great city of poets, 
philosophers, and artists, and when at last I got sight of 
the Acropolis and the Temple of Theseus I felt that I 
had been repaid for all the study of Grecian history and 
the Greek classics and, too, for all the troubles of the 
long journey, even were this all that I should see of 
Greece. It seems to me that there is far more romantic 
feeling about Athens than about Rome. The history of 
Athens is more brilliant, more startling, more wonderful. 
The Romans were matter of fact and military and 
administrative. Strangely enough, students generally 
side with the enemies of Rome, beginning with the 
Second Punic War. Who does not wish that Hannibal 



THE ROMANCE OF ATHENS 205 

could have conquered? Then, too, Athens is older and 
was never so corrupt as Rome. There has been no 
mediaeval history and no mediaeval buildings have been 
erected over the old sites. This is where Socrates walked, 
where Demosthenes spoke, where iEschylus and Thucy- 
dides and perhaps Homer, where Plato, Aristotle, and 
Sophocles thought and wrote, and where Xenophon was 
born, and lastly and most of all where St. Paul boldly 
preached Christ and the resurrection of the dead, "to 
the Greeks foolishness." What courage it must have 
taken to say all this in the presence of the most refined, 
the most cultivated, the most philosophical, the most 
critical, and the most scornful audience in the world! I 
felt a strange yearning for the past, a sadness mingled 
with delight as I drove along. 

Much less has been done here than in Rome in the 
way of excavations, but, on the other hand, the ancient 
monuments are not so deeply buried and those on the 
heights or near the tops are practically uncovered. 

Thursday, January 6 

To-day is Christmas according to the old calendar fol- 
lowed by the Greek Church. On this public holiday I 
walked round the base of the Acropolis until I came sud- 
denly upon a cutting into the side of the hill with steps or 
seats. I approached nearer and was at once convinced 
that I was at the Theatre of Dionysus. It was almost 
like discovering it for one's self. Being Christmas there 
were no guides and at all times in Athens the monu- 
ments are free. I was there absolutely alone; no bars to 
keep me out, not even a drachma to pay. There I 
stayed two hours and a half, making out the plan of the 
theatre and copying or reading inscriptions. The old 
marble seats of the priests in the front row were still 



206 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

there, though the rest of the marble, for the most part, 
had been burned to make lime, as have been the arms, 
legs, and heads of many statues. This is the unfortunate 
fate of many an interesting monument in Athens, and 
it seems all the more absurd when one considers that 
there are marble and limestone quarries of unlimited 
extent everywhere about. It merely saved cutting the 
stone from the quarry to use some statue, column, frieze, 
or bas-relief. 

It is interesting to note that the seat of Dionysus or 
Bacchus, to use the Latin name, is in the centre with 
Zeus on the right and Apollo on the left as one faces the 
stage. The place had a special charm to me as being the 
very spot where were acted the plays I have read in col- 
lege. This spot is mentioned in history and in the oration 
"De Corona" of Demosthenes, and also by iEschines. 
I remembered Professor Goodwin told us at Harvard 
that there was no reason to doubt that these marble 
seats were the old ones used in the fourth century B.C., 
so I sat in the seat with the old priest and with the en- 
voys of Philip I of Macedon and perhaps where Socrates 
sat when chosen epistates. 

I went into the Russian church and heard the Christ- 
mas services. These were all choral and very solemn. 
There was no organ or other musical instrument. The 
bass had a superb voice. He took B flat and possibly 
A natural below the low C and held it long, with a full, 
rich, rumbling sound like the soft pedal notes of an 
organ, vibrating after the other voices died out at the 
end of the responses. This is the first time I have ever 
heard any note sung below D that did not seem strained 
and unpleasant. To be sure, this chorister had the ad- 
vantage of singing in a small building of splendid acous- 
tic properties. 



A GREEK FUNERAL 207 

While among the ruins of the Temple of Zeus there 
passed a Greek funeral. I saw coming toward me the 
procession headed by priests in long white robes, plain 
or trimmed with red and gold, wearing tall black hats 
with a rim at the top. In front of the priests were car- 
ried two banners and two lights and in front of these was 
a man carrying something blue and white, long and 
narrow. As they neared I found it was the lid of the 
casket or coffin, covered with blue and spangled with 
silver stars and lined with white. Behind the priests was 
a singer, chanting from a book, and behind him was the 
body carried on a flat bier by six men. The body was so 
arranged as to be seen from all sides. 

This procession coming from the outskirts of the 
town, passing the grand old ruins and slowly winding its 
way across the Ilissus, and through the narrow road 
bordered with cypress-trees leading to the distant 
burial-ground, and the solemn chanting becoming more 
and more indistinct and carried away by the wind and 
then heard faintly again and then more faintly still, 
seemed to be an emblem of the ancient times, as they 
came and went. The sadness of the poor mourners on 
their Christmas Day blended fittingly with that strange 
sad yearning for the heroes of the past that hung about 
me still. 

Friday, January 7 

Called on Mr. and Mrs. Wyndham, English Secretary 
of Legation, whom I had met at the British Embassy 
at Paris, and found Madame at home. I left Tenter- 
den's letter of introduction to the Honorable William 
Stuart, C.B., the English Minister to Greece. He is a son 
of Lord Blantyre. On returning to the hotel I found 
the card of General Read, United States Minister to 



208 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Athens, and a card of invitation to dine to-morrow with 
the Wyndhams. 

Sunday, January 9 

English church in the morning. We had a good sermon 
from Sullivan, the headmaster of Winchester School. 
In the afternoon strolled about and heard in the Place 
de la Concorde the King's band playing opera airs. 
Most of the men, except the foreigners, wore the pic- 
turesque Greek costume with a thickly plaited skirt 
called "fustanella." Almost all the women wore Paris 
fashions and the Maid of Athens was seen no more in 
public and even her costume was not to be found ex- 
cepting among a few of the poorer class. However, 
there may be more women who hold to the old costume 
than one sees, for they are kept very much at home and 
do not go abroad to be seen as in the west of Europe. 
Met King George out walking. He is young and has a 
graceful figure. Dined in the evening with the Wynd- 
hams at Hotel New York. After dinner came in the 
Reverend G. B. d'Arcy with the Reverend Mr. Sullivan, 
headmaster of Winchester School, and three boys who 
were "doing" Greece with him during the holidays. 
Very pleasant evening. Sullivan uncommonly bright 
and entertaining. Received an invitation to dine with 
Mr. Stuart, the British Minister, on the 12th. 

Wednesday, January 12 

The day before New Year's according to old style. The 
streets were crowded with people all dressed in their 
best. The cathedral was decorated with flags and the 
shops filled with toys, fancy articles, and sweets. I 
noticed that on this gala day most of the men had 
doffed their strictly Greek dress, which I fear will soon 



GREEK NEW YEAR'S DAY 209 

pass out entirely except in the country districts. The 
streets were very noisy, each person in them vying with 
the others to make the most disturbance possible. 
Middle-aged and otherwise sensible-looking men were 
blowing whistles of various kinds, some trilling, some 
changing their notes, and others on the same note, but 
shrill all of them. I saw various kinds of rattles, like 
watchmen's, and one youth of about seventeen looked 
very proud in the possession of one of these fatties nearly 
two feet long. I walked about the antiquities as usual in 
the afternoon. Fortunately, most of them were away 
from the noise and dirt of the city. 

In the evening at half-past seven dined with the 
Honorable William Stuart, the English Minister and 
Envoy Extraordinary. Here I met Mr. and Mrs. Wynd- 
ham, and a young Englishman, one of the delightful sort, 
and General and Mrs. Read. The latter were very kindc 
General Read believed in President Grant most thor- 
oughly and considered him the equal of General Wash- 
ington. He said that President Grant as early as the 
fall of '73 told him that our debt must be paid in coin 
honestly, and not in written promises. This is interest- 
ing as it has sometimes been said that Grant was only 
converted to that view later. Stuart, a Trinity College, 
Cambridge, graduate, has been in the diplomatic service 
in Rio de Janeiro, in Naples before the united Italy, in 
Washington, U.S.A., during part of the Civil War, in 
Constantinople, St. Petersburg, and Argentina before 
coming to Athens. He represents one of those diplomatic 
careers we do not have in the United States, beginning 
as Secretary of Legation and working his way up by 
distinguished service. He also acted in some capacity 
in the conference on American treaties in London in 
1871. He talked of his experiences in the United States, 



210 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

where he arrived just after the settlement of the Trent 
Affair. 

Mrs. Stuart at table said she was glad to hear that the 
bitter feeling against England was dying out in America. 
Good feeling was then sure to come, "for there had," 
said she, "never been the slightest prejudice on the part 
of England." No one assented to this remark, not even 
Mr. Stuart. 

After dinner they played a game of cards, in which I 
joined. There were some counters used and when the 
game was finished I had, with a beginner's luck, won a 
good many of these counters. To my astonishment and 
mortification I found people pulling money out of their 
pockets and turning it over to me. I had thought we 
were playing merely for the game; indeed, had I lost 
anything like what I then found I had gained, I should 
not have had enough to pay the gambling debt, but 
should have had to give an I.O.U. I hesitated as to 
what to do. The Stuarts and their guests were very good 
people and gambling on a moderate scale in games of 
cards is not uncommon in England, even among church 
people. I decided it would be better courtesy to accept 
the situation. The following day I sent some very fine 
flowers to Mrs. Stuart, who had been one of the chief 
losers. 

Drove back from this dinner with General and Mrs. 
Read and spent an hour talking in their pleasant rooms 
in the Hotel Grande Bretagne. As I came out I found 
a bright moon, just past the full, and as this was the first 
clear evening we had had for some time, though late I 
walked round the boulevard, stopping and sitting in the 
seats of the old Theatre of Dionysus. I longed to go up 
on the Acropolis, but at night a written permission is nec- 
essary and that can be obtained only during the daytime 



SCALING THE ACROPOLIS AT NIGHT 211 

from the public authorities. I went to the entrance and 
tried to persuade the two Greek officers to allow me to 
come in, explaining that I was a stranger from America, 
that I had failed to get the pass as the weather was so 
cloudy in the afternoon, and that this was my last chance 
in all probability for a clear night, and I hinted at giving 
them any suitable fee to cover any responsibility they 
might undertake in granting me the permission. Each 
officer eyed the other in such a way as to make me think 
that either alone would have accepted such a fee, but 
each was afraid of the other. "How happy could I be 
with either, were t' other dear charmer away." 

Walking back from the Propylsea or entrance gate to 
the Acropolis, I turned sharp to the left and followed 
along under the wall on a narrow ledge, then climbed a 
steep embankment and stood on the narrow path at its 
summit. From there I looked up at the perpendicular 
walls. I happened to notice that above my head the 
wall was a few feet lower than in most places and that 
there were several large crevices between the huge 
square blocks of stone. I became impressed with the 
fact that this was my last opportunity of seeing the 
Parthenon by moonlight. The next evening was to be 
the King's ball and the evening after the moon would 
rise too late and be in its third quarter. Then, too, I 
wondered if it were not really possible for the Persians 
to have scaled the walls about 490 B.C., as traditional 
history states — a fact much doubted by many com- 
mentators. Perhaps the professors were not good 
climbers themselves. The cool, bracing air of the eve- 
ning after the heated rooms, the romance of the hour 
and place made me feel bold and reckless, so without 
further thought up I began to climb with my long ulster, 
patent-leather shoes, dress suit, and opera hat on. I had 



212 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

got up about nine or ten feet when my hand touched a 
loose stone. It gave me a sudden start. I had now gone 
high enough to prove that it was possible to scale such 
a wall and I stopped to consider about getting down 
again. But on looking under me I could not see, in the 
uncertain light, where to put my foot to descend. The 
ledge or path from which I had mounted was very nar- 
row, not over a foot or two broad; just outside of that 
was a steep slope as steep as the debris from excava- 
tions would lie, and below that a precipitous wall prob- 
ably of the Odeum of Atticus with large blocks of broken 
marbles at the bottom. To drop from this height on to 
so narrow a ledge would have meant certain death. Then 
I began to realize what a rash thing I had undertaken. 
What if I should fall and be instantly killed, or, if I 
had a breath left in my mangled body, what reason 
could I give for being in such a place, or suppose if 
I kept on climbing up I should be discovered in the 
act! 

I heard distant bugles, perhaps from the palace 
guard, but all was quiet above and below. There was 
nothing for it, then, but to continue my upward prog- 
ress. I had only to get my feet about where my hands 
were now, then I could nearly reach the lowest part of 
the breach in the wall. I felt each stone to be sure it was 
firm before trusting myself to it. My fingers were be- 
coming a little tired and torn. Stopping and listening 
at each step, at last I got my head on a level with the 
opening, which I found was just even with the ground at 
that place. 

One of the top stones I found loose. Then moving 
sideways and getting hold of the inside of the wall at the 
left of the breach, I lifted myself up, getting first my 
knee and then my foot on the ground and ran for sev- 



THE ACROPOLIS BY MOONLIGHT 213 

eral paces away from the wall, feeling as if I were pur- 
sued by a demon who would drag me back and hurl me 
down. 

At last, calmed by my sure footing on level ground, 
I walked among that forest of white marbles, mounted 
the winding stairs to the top of the Parthenon and there 
had the most magnificent view conceivable — the 
^Egean Sea sparkling in the moonlight, the distant 
islands, the near city, and the ancient monuments about 
me. The moonlight made the hills of Attica look nearer 
than they really were, while the Caryatides, or Maidens 
in pure white marble supporting the porch of the Erec- 
theum, seemed alive, but sadly, calmly, and proudly 
looking on a time of heroes, philosophers, artists, and 
poets, and, disdaining an era of mechanics, practical 
science, business, and filthy lucre, stood awaiting the 
return of the Golden Age. 

Perhaps an hour, perhaps thirty minutes of luxurious 
revel in romance; then I had to settle the question, in 
common with the rats, how to get out of my trap. Then, 
to my surprise, I saw three men enter, one of them about 
my height with a long overcoat and tall hat very like 
mine. The other two were short and had low-crowned 
derbies. Sitting in the shadow of some columns, I 
watched them and waited until they had been just 
about long enough to make their return probable. I did 
not dare to wait longer for fear they might actually 
start to leave. Then, at the selected moment I walked 
straight and boldly to the entrance gate, planning if 
there were any question from the keepers, who could not 
speak English, to make as though my supposed friends 
were following me. I got to the gate and found the 
keepers and coachman in a hut near by warming them- 
selves beside a fire. I pulled my opera hat well over my 



214 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

eyes and bowed as I passed. One of the keepers un- 
locked the gate, while the coachman stayed behind to 
put on his coat and relight his pipe. The keeper looked 
over my shoulder to see the other two, but I did not 
quail or waver. I passed slowly and with dignity and 
walked calmly away and smiled to think how puzzled the 
man would be to settle in his mind how it was possible 
for him to have let out four men when he had let in but 
three. Perhaps one of the three was put in jail to lan- 
guish there till the representative of his country should 
see the Secretary of State for Greece and get him re- 
leased. If that was not the outcome, at least the keepers 
from then on believed in ghosts. After walking and then 
half running rapidly away and fearing I should be 
called back and myself thrust into an Athenian prison, 
I spent a short time on Mars Hill, far enough away to be 
safe, and then went back to my hotel, passing some 
marble pillars of the old market-place. 

Thursday, January 13 

Danced in the Queen's set at quadrille at the Royal 
Ball in the evening. Meanwhile I found at breakfast the 
young Englishman I had met the evening before at the 
Stuarts'. He belonged to the diplomatic service at 
Constantinople and had come to Athens in the Em- 
bassy's steam yacht. He was bound for Piraeus, the 
port of Athens, and asked me aboard. I accepted and 
when on the yacht met the ship's doctor who thought it 
necessary to drink some rum and water to counteract the 
effects of the sherry he had been imbibing. He showed 
much concern lest some one should forget to carry the 
brandy to the Royal Ball in the evening. This doctor 
expressed a supreme contempt for the American navy, 
where they drank only water, as he thought, though I 



DANCING WITH QUEEN OLGA 215 

believe there is no prohibition against the American 
officers having liquor at their own expense. 

It was very pleasant to see the English sailors looking 
so clean and trig in comparison with the dirty Sicilians, 
hardly deserving the name of sailors, who were on the 
Italian steamer by which I came to Greece. I saw some 
cannon of modern invention. They were breech-loaders 
and could be charged very quickly. The King and Queen 
went to the Cathedral in full style in the morning and 
stayed there some fifteen minutes. 

In the evening I went to the Grand Ball. This is 
given by the King once a year. About eight hundred 
guests were there. I had the honor to dance one qua- 
drille in the same set with the royal couple and I was put 
opposite the Queen whose hand I took in the ladies' 
chain, and grand right and left. She is handsome, at- 
tractive, and well favored, and was smiling and gracious 
to me throughout. She sat down between the figures. 
I was asked by the manager to dance in this set. Who 
suggested me to him I do not know. While it may have 
been Mr. Stuart or General Read, Mr. and Mrs. Stuart 
were in mourning and were not at the ball and General 
Read told me that he had got me the invitation to the 
ball, but said nothing about my dancing with the Queen. 
Was it possible the suggestion came from a higher 
source? Most probably, I thought, some one had given 
out and the manager took me as an unplaced foreigner 
to fill the gap. 

The King took Mrs. Read into supper. At supper 
many of the men ate with their hats on. There were no 
napkins and some of the finest-looking ladies wiped 
their mouths on the edge of the tablecloth. There were 
virtually several courses, but no clean plates, so cold 
meat, salad, jelly, and fruit were eaten with the same 



216 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

knife and fork and off the same dish. The King and his 
select party of about twenty had a special supper by 
themselves, where they were probably better served. 

Many of the Greeks drank champagne as if they had 
had none since the last annual ball. They did not mind 
drinking from glasses already used. All the military and 
naval officers and diplomats were in full uniform. There 
were no Greek costumes among the women, but all 
Parisian, and very few among the men. 

After supper was a cotillon which was very well 
managed. The two figures were simple and such as 
were well known to me at home. Both were figures 
where you were led to your new partner by chance. 
The dance was a waltz. During the evening I once 
saw some one, probably an American, who reversed for 
a short time. In general, however, all danced round 
and round in the same direction, moving in a large 
circle. In beginning to dance the man puts his right arm 
round his partner's waist and they both begin to walk 
and almost run in a straight line for five or six yards and 
then revolve very fast. This method of dancing has 
the advantage of making the figures short, for even 
when accustomed to it, one cannot revolve long in this 
fashion without becoming dizzy. 

The Queen wore a handsome and expensive wine- 
colored overskirt above a lavender underskirt and a 
crown richly set in diamonds, but her dress did not 
become her. The King danced very well. He is King 
George I and brother of the Princess of Wales (now 
Dowager Queen Alexandra of England). The Queen is 
Olga Constantinovna, a Grand Duchess of the Imperial 
House of Russia. (George I was assassinated in 1913 
and was succeeded by Constantine with his German 
wife.) 




QUEEN OLGA OF GREECE AND PRINCESS MARIE 



A GREEK SUNSET 217 

Friday, January 14 

Made afternoon calls on Mr. d'Arcy, the Wyndhams, 
and the Stuarts, and in the evening on the Reads, where 
I lingered for three pleasant hours, at least pleasant to 
me and I hope not wearisome to them. 

Saturday, January 15 

Walked with Mr. Cross, an Englishman I met at the 
Embassy, to the Bay of Eleusis and back, a tramp of 
sixteen miles. 

Wednesday, January 19 

I met the King out walking. He had on a stiff -crowned, 
tall hat and brown kid gloves. His companion, a middle- 
aged man, had on white kid gloves, though walking on a 
lonely and dusty road. We bowed as we passed and the 
King seemed to recognize me, probably as a dancer in a 
set with himself and the Queen at the Royal Ball six 
days before, though I would wager he could n't for the 
life of him either tell my name or whether I were English 
or American. 

Thursday, January 20 

As I turned to walk home from a tramp toward Char- 
vati the sun was beginning to set amid great profusion of 
separate clouds. As I was winding round a gradual bend 
in the road, with a hill on my right hiding the sun, I 
came upon a drove of ten or a dozen donkeys heavily 
laden with fagots. These were ahead of me, so the sun 
was shining among them while I was in shadow. The 
effect was strikingly picturesque. The animals, with 
their irregular-shaped burdens, were darkly marked 
against the violet hills beyond while the clouds of dust 
stirred up by their feet were richly tinted with orange. 



218 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

As I gradually rounded the curve in the road under the 
base of the hill, I saw before me the "city of the violet 
crown," till at last the sun burst full upon me, shining 
through the columns of the Parthenon, and then, while I 
was looking, only too quickly sank behind the Acropolis, 
leaving the ground about me in shadow; then looking 
back I saw its rays suddenly lighting up snow-topped 
Hymettus and in a moment after the whole of the cloud 
above. This sunset, whether superior to any other I 
have seen before or not, was certainly rendered thrilling 
by the Acropolis and the snow on the classic mountains, 
and warmed me with the associations of the place. 
Whether there may be in the Alpine sunsets combina- 
tions of color more gorgeous still than this, I do not 
know, but there is no place in the world that has for me 
the background of history, literature, and art to set off 
the wonderful effects of nature that are here. 

The more I see of this country, the more I am im- 
pressed with its smallness. I think it is Goethe who 
spoke of "a great country with a small area." From the 
Acropolis of Athens one can see into Argolis. Mara- 
thon is but twenty-two miles away by a winding road. 
The amount of arable land of the valleys of Attica even 
a Highland Scotchman might despise, and as I was walk- 
ing along, musing on the wonderful history of Greece, I 
was more forcibly struck than ever by the great con- 
trast between the small size and barrenness of the 
country on the one hand, and on the other hand the 
great power and influence of the Greeks upon the 
world. Why is it that at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, 
and, in fact, in every university in Europe the history 
of this little place should be carefully taught, often to 
the neglect of that of larger and richer countries in 
Europe? It seems to show more plainly than anything 



GREEK FREEDOM 219 

else the great superiority of the intellect and soul over 
mere materialism. I wish some of our politicians at 
home, who talk of the "vast extent and boundless re- 
sources" of our country, could be made to feel this. It 
is quality and not quantity that counts. 

Saturday, January 22 

I bade good-bye to the Acropolis, the Pnyx, Mars Hill, 
and the Theatre of Dionysus. As I said au revoir to 
Greece, I thought with sadness how the jealousies and 
extreme states' rights doctrines kept the ancient Greeks 
from combining into one large and powerful nation. No 
state was then willing to part with one jot of its sov- 
ereignty for the benefit of the whole, itself included. 
The Athenians had to meet the whole Persian force at 
Marathon with only a few troops from the town of 
Platsea to aid them, while at Thermopylae the Lace- 
daemonians had only a handful of Thebans and Thes- 
pians to assist. The internal wars, too, between these 
states still further weakened Greece so that it was easy 
for Philip of Macedon to take advantage of the jeal- 
ousies of these belittled nations, to prevent united action 
against his encroachments. 

Traveling into the interior was practically prohibited 
because the Government would not allow any excursion 
even to Marathon or Corinth or to any part of the 
Peloponnesus without a strong armed guard. Only a 
little over five years ago an Englishman by the name of 
Vyner and his friends were carried off by brigands within 
thirteen miles of Athens on the road toward Marathon. 

Lord Byron's prophetic dream "that Greece might 
still be free " has come to pass, but what will she make of 
her freedom? That remains to be seen. The states once 
kept apart are now united into one nation and local 



220 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

jealousies have ended. On the whole, I do not think the 
Greeks are so dishonest or worthless as commonly 
stated. When the Turks were repudiating some of their 
bonds, the phrase was current, "Le Turc est devenu 
Grec." But I think that is unfair. While in politics 
they are corrupt, in ordinary business transactions they 
are pretty honest and keep their word as far as I can 
judge from all I hear and see. 

I was sorry to read to-day in the "Times" of the 11th 
the news of the death of Lord Amberley, the eldest son 
of Lord and Lady Russell who were so kind to me while 
in England. 

Sunday, January 23 

In the afternoon, before sailing, called on General and 
Mrs. Read. Mrs. Read said that the Grecians were very 
inhospitable. This was caused, she thought, partly by 
their poverty. Her painting master has charge of the 
drawing in all the schools and he says "there is not 
a particle of talent for drawing among the modern 
Greeks." Think of this for the country of Phidias! 

I left for Egypt in the evening in one of the new 
steamers, named the Behera, with which the Khedive 
is trying to build up a merchant marine for his country. 
On this vessel the third-class passengers all slept on 
deck, the women in a kind of tent by themselves aft of 
the first-class smoking-cabin, while the others were kept 
forward. A temporary fence was put up and a guard set 
to watch. The third-class passengers were mostly Turks 
and Arabs with a few Greeks; many of the two former 
were pilgrims. During the passage the vessel rolled 
very badly for the size of the waves. Her cargo was 
placed too high because it was more convenient to have 
it near the top for loading and unloading. Before we 



THE iEGEAN 221 

lost sight of the poetic island of Naxos, where Theseus 
left his faithful Ariadne, the rolling became horrible. 
Directly above my stateroom were some donkeys or 
mules on the deck, and as my berth was an upper one 
and the decks a good conductor of sound, I was all 
night long reminded of the presence of these poor strug- 
gling animals. The vessel would roll over to starboard 
and those on the port would be struggling to prevent 
being hung by their halters. The vessel would lie over 
for a long time nearly on its side as if she would never 
right herself again, it seemed to me; then suddenly 
would turn with a great rush as far the other way; and 
then the poor donkeys would all begin backing to pre- 
vent their heads being knocked into the bulwarks. I 
went on deck to see what could be done, but there were 
no appliances at hand to better conditions for these 
suffering creatures. 

At other times when the vessel was pitching I would 
hear the stamping begin in the distance and then come 
nearer and nearer as the mules tumbled upon one another 
like a row of card houses, until at last a kick close to my 
head sounded as if the feet were coming through the 
boards. The stamping would be followed by a little 
silence, then would come again the slipping of feet and 
trying to get hold of the deck again. After this another 
silence, sometimes lasting for five seconds, and I would 
try to get to sleep before the whole process was repeated, 
but vain were my attempts till the early hours of morn- 
ing. We stopped at Rhodes, but only for a short time 
during the night and leaving about three in the morning. 
Think of it! Rhodes! The Colossus of Rhodes has 
disappeared. 



CHAPTER XIV 

EGYPT — THE ENGLISH EMBASSY — GENERAL-IN- 
CHIEF — EGYPTIAN INJUSTICE 

Wednesday, January 26 

Preparations went on for landing at Alexandria. The 
deck was swabbed up for the first time since leaving 
Athens. On other days it had just been swept a little in 
the neighborhood of the first- and second-class pas- 
sengers' seats only. The log had been thrown over regu- 
larly during the voyage. 

The sailors were mostly Arabians and more dirty than 
the Sicilians of my last steamer. They had a great lack 
of physical force and energy. They had twice very 
nearly let go of the log and they only worked with a will 
for a moment or two when it was absolutely necessary. 
Perhaps they were all seasick; they acted as if they 
were. Usually they took hold with only one hand in 
pulling on the ropes and they sang a refrain in a low 
undertone in answer to a call from one of them on a 
higher key. The effect was strange. It was not a loud, 
stirring call like that of sailors on the North Atlantic, 
but soft and quiet as if they were murmuring to them- 
selves or saying an evening hymn to Allah. Seventeen 
of them took part in hauling in the little dingey astern 
on leaving the Piraeus, and the whole lot took about five 
times as long as it would have taken two American or 
British sailors to do the same job. "What," said I to 
myself, "would happen in case of an accident and an 
attempt to launch the large lifeboats?" 

Before reaching port the women's tent was taken down 
and disclosed a harem with its mistress. The faces of 



JOURNEY FROM ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO 223 

the women were pretty with large eyes and pink-and- 
white complexions, but they had either no expression 
whatsoever or a silly one. They were much amused at 
seeing men and some of them most boldly winked at us. 
They probably never had had such a chance for a little 
flirtation before and never would again. 

The journey of four and a half hours from Alexandria 
to Cairo was a succession of delights and I was in high 
spirits. The morning lights on the perfectly calm water 
in the pools and rivers of the Delta, reflecting palm- 
trees, huge water birds, and every cloud in the sky; the 
fresh, juicy-looking clover; long cotton fields looking 
like huge flakes of snow fallen upon a brown soil; the 
mouse-colored Egyptian cattle with crooked, flattened 
horns; long rows of solemn camels; and not least of all 
the small mud villages looking like muskrat huts placed 
among palm-trees, only they had their entrances above 
instead of under the waterline; the fine, manly, dark- 
colored natives; the graceful water-carriers with their 
long, dark blue cloaks, and the endless fields stretching 
off without fences to the horizon; the cities with their 
mosques, palaces, and huts, a sight of the distant brown, 
red, and yellow hills of the desert, and before reaching 
Cairo a glimpse of the great pyramids reflected in the 
river — all seen when in such good spirits and with a 
light heart were thrilling indeed. I felt as happy as a 
king, or sultan I suppose I should say here. 

Went to the Hotel du Nil. The approach was through 
a long, narrow street, too narrow for carriages, leading 
off the Muski, where we left the omnibus and put the 
trunk on the back of a carrier. I began to think there 
must have been some mistake and that he was leading 
me off into an obscure quarter to rob me, but soon the 
hotel was reached and proved to be both pretty and 



224 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

cozy. It is built round a garden about one quarter 
of an acre with seats, summer houses, palm-trees, and 
shrubs. 

After lunch I took a donkey and a boy who ran on 
behind whipping the donkey and directing me where to 
go, headed for the bankers Todd, Miiller et Cie., who 
were down the darkest, dirtiest alley I ever saw. When 
the boy told me to get off at a stone gateway leading into 
an unlighted passage without any sign, I thought he was 
mad, but he was n't; he turned out to be right. 

I delivered letters of introduction to General Stanton, 
the British Consul-General, and to General Charles 
Pomeroy Stone, a West Point officer who is now com- 
mander-in-chief of the Khedive's forces in Egypt and 
has charge of the chief engineering works, especially 
those connected with the great dams and reservoirs to 
increase the flow of the Nile during the low season. 

Friday, January 28 

Spent the day seeing the usual guide-book sights, and 
in the evening dined informally with General Stone and 
his wife. He explained the military, engineering, and 
commercial problems of the country most interestingly, 
and we also talked of common friends at home. 

Saturday, January 29 

I like the native Egyptian men. They have good 
figures, manly bearing, fine heads, straight and well- 
shaped noses, and are industrious. They strike one as 
far superior to the Italians of southern Italy and are 
more useful men than the modern Greeks; less posing 
and more simplicity. General Stone said they make the 
best soldiers he has ever seen, for they bear great fatigue, 
are energetic, subordinate, and intelligent. In speaking 



SOLDIERS' BOYS' SCHOOL IN CAIRO 225 

with them one forgets the color as Desdemona did 
Othello's. 

After lunch went on donkey to the Citadel to meet 
General Stone by appointment. He showed me about a 
little, but then, having some business appointments, 
handed me over to Major Hall, an American, formerly 
an officer in the Confederate States' army. Major Hall 
spoke with great warmth of General Stone's ability and 
high character. 

With him I visited the soldiers' boys' school. Every 
soldier and officer in the Egyptian army has a right to 
send his son to this school from the ages of six to six- 
teen. It is a day school. There he is taught reading, 
writing, arithmetic, geography, a little geometry, Eng- 
lish, and French, and there he is clothed and given one 
meal a day. There are now twelve hundred such boys. 
They are bright, neat lads. I heard several classes of 
them recite, and read. This is all General Stone's idea, 
which the Khedive has allowed him to carry out. In 
another year General Stone hopes that all the soldiers' 
children, not living near enough to come and go every 
day, are to be housed as well as fed. 

I saw the printing office of the War Department. 
They made their own type. For printing in Arabic, 
which is the language of the country except of the court, 
which is Persian, there are 256 different letters to be 
used. 

I saw the "Volunteer Corps." This is made up of 
boys and men over sixteen. They drill, live and dress 
like soldiers and study courses between the primary and 
the upper military schools. The most promising of these 
become, if they choose, candidates for the Egyptian 
West Point. 

Major Hall, being a Southerner, puts the position as 



226 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

held by the Southern'Conf ederates in this way : they were 
neither wrong nor mistaken during the Civil War, but 
now that the question is settled, again to try to secede 
would be treason. 

While I did not agree as to right of secession, I made 
no reply, not caring to enter into discussion with a 
gallant foe over a now dead issue. 

After dinner had a call from Mr. C. Inman Barnard, 
who is out here as secretary to General Stone, a gentle- 
manly, friendly, handsome and agreeable fellow. 

As illustrating the value of ancient history, the other 
day an inscription four thousand years old was made use 
of as the only source of information as to the position of 
the wells in Upper Egypt, where is the present military 
expedition. It is rather odd to have to refer so far back, 
one hundred years before Abraham, for practical in- 
formation necessary to the movements of the army of 
to-day. 

Sunday, January SO 

After church called with Barnard on General Stone, 
who told me there are about 140,000 Egyptian children 
in schools not counting the military establishments. 
This is out of a population of a little over 5,000,000. 
General Stone gave Barnard a holiday for to-morrow 
that he might go with me and see the pyramids. Dined 
this evening with Barnard. 

Monday, January 31 

Early breakfast. Left hotel at eight o'clock calling for 
Barnard on the way. Beautiful morning. We passed 
some of the numerous palaces of the Khedive. What is 
very curious is that the Khedive builds his new palaces 
very near his old ones. He must be building them with 



THE PYRAMIDS 227 

an idea of giving employment, like Mill's illustration of 
breaking panes of glass to keep the glaziers busy. The 
approach to the pyramids is now over a straight car- 
riage road, bordered with trees. I was not disappointed 
even on first sight, as many are said to be, for the pyra- 
mids seemed colossal from the most distant view to the 
nearest. 

Went up to the top and inside the King's and Queen's 
chambers. It was very annoying not to be left alone. 
The natives were chattering, quarreling, and trying to 
prove that we could not mount the pyramids without 
their assistance, and, with attempts at pushing and 
trying to get rid of them, it took away much of the 
pleasure and romance. When inside the chambers, 
which are only reached by a long, low tunnel through 
which we had to crouch and almost crawl, a crowd of 
these fellows came about us and began shouting for 
baksheesh, gesticulating and evidently trying to frighten 
us. We kept, however, placid, smiling countenances and 
did not yield a penny. 

One of the best-looking of these Arabs took our side 
and quieted the others. He was a fine, strong fellow, 
with beautiful, well-shaped muscles. After coming out 
I tried some feats of strength with him. He is said to be 
the strongest man hereabouts. He looked far stronger 
than I, but I found my grip was stronger than his. In 
trying to bend each other's arms we came out about even. 
We put up the same size stone, though he may have 
done it a little better than I, and he held out a stone 
horizontally longer than I could. I outjumped him on 
running long jump by about three feet, though he was 
barefooted and I had on thick shoes, both of us jumping 
on the sand. He works his farm every morning and 
lifts people up and down the pyramids every day, so he 



228 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

is in better training than I. It was strange to have such 
friendly, almost fellow-college-student dealings with 
this Arab so far from my home and so separated by race 
and education. 

Mr. Piazzi Smyth has some theories that the Great 
Pyramid is an observatory as the opening points to the 
North Star, and that the sarcophagi are units of meas- 
urement, cubic, square, and linear; but as all the pyra- 
mids in Egypt, and there are many of them, are in 
burying grounds and have sarcophagi of varying size 
and some of them with mummies found inside and with 
inscriptions relating to the dead, Smyth's theories 
seemed to us absurd. Back in time for dinner. 

Tuesday, February 1 

A six-thirty o'clock breakfast. Left the hotel soon 
after seven and rode, I on one donkey and the donkey 
boy on the other, carrying luncheon and crossing the 
river to the railway station at Gizeh on our way south 
to Sakkarah. I had engaged the donkey boy on the 
understanding that he could speak English. "Oh, yes," 
he said, "I speak English." I asked him about one of 
the palaces. "Is that the palace of X. Pasha?" "Oh, 
yes," said he. Then later I asked, "That must have 
been after all the palace of Y. Pasha." "Oh, yes," said 
he. "Then why did you say it was the palace of 
X. Pasha?" "Oh, yes," said he. "Then," said I, "you 
were a humbug." "Oh, yes." "And you lied about that 
palace?" "Oh, yes," he answered. However, I found 
he knew a few French words, and what with gestures, 
French, signs, and pointing we got on pretty well. 

Sakkarah is the necropolis of ancient Memphis. At 
Gizeh, just across the river, we put the donkeys aboard 
the train and left at eight for the first station to the 



EGYPTIAN WOMEN 229 

south, Bedrashen. We passed through large groves or 
almost forests planted by the Government. So many 
trees have been planted by the Khedive that it is thought 
here they make the climate more variable. At Bedras- 
hen we got on our donkeys again and skirted the mud 
village. We met great numbers of peasants going to 
market, as it was market-day at Gizeh. The dress of the 
women was very graceful. It consisted of one loose 
tunic coming down to the ankles and buttoning round 
the neck, but opening in a narrow slit over the breast. 
There was a cover to the head of the same color, a dark 
blue, nearly black, coming down to the eyes. The 
dresses, as they were walking against the wind, shaped 
themselves to the figures and fluttered off behind. The 
erect, slender form, the bright eyes, long lashes, smooth 
complexion, and shining teeth were combined very 
artistically. 

We saw near Mitrahenny a colossal statue which, 
though having lost its cap and all below its ankles, was 
still about thirty feet long. It was made of one piece of 
stone and was lying in an excavation at an odd angle, 
in about one half foot of water. Parts were still beau- 
tifully polished. It had on its breast an amulet like the 
Urim and Thummim of the Hebrews as described in 
Leviticus. This gave me pause. How much of the divine 
order to Moses about the priests' garbs may have been 
but recurring visions of what he saw in Egypt? was the 
question. The statue had a scroll in its hand with a 
name. We then climbed up the edge of the desert from 
the low river bottom, passing many excavations of 
tombs which had yielded a harvest of mummies, but the 
excavations had all been filled with sand again. 

After visiting the Great Sakkarah Pyramid, we re- 
turned, the boy and I riding all the way home on our 



230 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

donkeys. Going through a village which I believe was 
Abookirr, crowds of angry men followed us, waving 
sticks over and near our heads, shouting and pressing 
against our donkeys. I kept the same placid, smiling 
self-assurance of face that had worked so well inside the 
pyramids and unconcernedly moved safely along. When 
we got out of the village the best explanation that I 
could get from the donkey boy was that some English- 
men had got into trouble in the village not long ago such 
as had aroused hostility to foreigners in general. 

Between this village and Gizeh we were riding over a 
mere donkey path in among sand hills when suddenly 
there appeared a very well and expensively dressed Arab 
woman who was extraordinarily beautiful, young and 
plump, carrying a baby. She wore a necklace of gold 
coins which came down to her breast, and had gold ear- 
rings. She had none of the dust of the desert, and was 
as neat as if just stepping out of a house in, let us say, 
Chestnut Street, Boston. She had very handsome eyes. 
She was no darker than a Spaniard, and seemed to be 
of a superior class to any of the common women I had 
seen about Egypt. She came close to us and begged for 
money. I gave her a few sous and she still kept on for 
quite a distance. I rather imagined that it was a trap 
set by some wily Arabs who were hiding behind the hil- 
locks, but there was no house or even mud hut in sight. 

After reaching the hotel in the end of the afternoon 
I met the Reverend M. Warwick, one of the Cowley 
Fathers at Oxford, on his way to India. We had several 
long talks, mostly on philosophy, politics, and religion. 
He remembered seeing my father at Oxford. 

Had a call to-day from Major-General Stanton, 
English Consul-General. 



DISRAELI AND THE SUEZ CANAL 231 

Thursday, February 3 

In the afternoon returned General Stanton's call, but he 
was out, and later in the day got a note of invitation 
from him to dine on Saturday, the 5th. 

Saturday, February 5 

In the evening dined with General Stanton at the Brit- 
ish Embassy. He has the title of consul-general instead 
of ambassador in deference to the Sultan of Turkey, who 
is the nominal ruler of Egypt. As a matter of fact the 
Khedive, Ismail Pasha, is practically independent ex- 
cepting that he pays a tribute of about $2,500,000 a 
year, I believe it is, and, that being paid, rules as he 
pleases and can even float Egyptian bonds without the 
approval of the Sultan. General Stanton had recently 
come into great prominence in connection with the 
purchase by the British Government of the Khedive's 
176,000 shares of the Suez Canal. This was the great 
coup of the Disraeli Government which saved it from the 
mediocrity into which it had fallen in the last two years. 
The purchase was made in the end of last November and 
Stanton was the go-between in this delicate transaction. 
(Some years later it transpired that neither Stanton nor 
Earl Derby nor Disraeli, the Prime Minister, deserved 
much credit for the idea. The news that the Khedive 
was planning to sell his shares to the French was dis- 
covered by Mr. Frederick Greenwood, editor of the 
"Pall Mall Gazette." He took the news to Lord Derby, 
who would not believe it, giving as his reason that 
Stanton had never spoken of it and would have done so 
if the shares were being sold. Inquiry was made, how- 
ever, through Stanton, who found out that the rumor 
was true. At first neither Derby nor Disraeli took any 
interest in the subject, but at last they were strongly 



232 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

urged by Greenwood and some influential members of 
Parliament and adopted the scheme which so redounded 
to their glory.) 

At dinner were Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson, two young 
English lords, and the secretary to Mr. Cave. Mr. 
Stevenson told me he was at the head of Lloyd's Insur- 
ance in London, and that with them the decisions of our 
Judge Joseph Story on insurance were considered bet- 
ter than any of the English decisions. Indeed, Judge 
Story's decisions about partnerships as well as insur- 
ance were adopted as English law, though when first 
made they were contrary to it. 

This was one of the rather formal, dull occasions, 
with no bright conversation, no humor or wit, no secrets 
told, no topics discussed, though I was pleased to see 
Stanton, who is a faithful diplomatic public servant in a 
high and important position. 

Sunday, February 6 

In the afternoon called on the Stantons and Stones. Mrs. 
Stone said she had visited the Khedive's harem, that 
the women were handsome, that there was much done 
to amuse them, but not much to instruct, though a few 
of them were fairly intelligent. 

After dinner, or about eight-thirty in the evening, 
Barnard and I started off on a donkey each with a 
donkey boy behind, to spend the night at the pyramids. 
As we were entertained by an Arab for breakfast, and 
got some idea of Egyptian justice or rather injustice, 
and had an exciting night, I give the details of this trip. 
We carried two blankets each and had on thick clothing. 
We rode through Cairo at a slow trot, crossed the Nile 
by the new iron bridge, and skirting the village of 
Gizeh, struck across the low plain between the river and 



THE PYRAMIDS AT NIGHT 233 

the desert. There was a mist over this fertile land and 
we could not see far horizontally, but above, the sky was 
blue, a few stars were shining clearly, and a clear-cut, 
brilliant moon followed us along almost directly over- 
head. Neither of us spoke. A jackal crossed the road, 
howling, whining, or barking all the time. Suddenly we 
began to make out the pyramids through the mist. 
They loomed up enormously, and again we saw their 
reflection in the water of the canal on the left of the road. 
I thought of the inscription on the tomb of Tih which 
lets us know that the Egyptians called their houses 
"hostelries," but their tombs their "eternal dwelling- 
places." It seems sad that, with all the care these 
builders took, their bodies should have been carried 
away so long ago that even in the ninth century the 
desecration was forgotten and no one then even knew 
where the opening was. But sadder than all is it that 
now every rude and thoughtless traveler may enter and 
disturb and drive away, by laughs and jests, by candles 
and magnesium lights, the spirit that haunts the cham- 
bers. The poor homeless ghost! But the body is not, 
like some of its fellows, to be preserved in a museum to 
be measured, weighed, stared at or jested about, but 
yet, though saved this misery, how vain was the hope of 
an "eternal home" in "houses built with hands"! 

We hoped at that hour of the night to be preserved 
from the troublesome Arabs, but unfortunately some 
had been following a carriage on its return to Cairo and 
saw us and insisted upon staying in our immediate 
neighborhood. 

On the desert heights the air was clear and warmer 
than below, and about eleven o'clock we lay down to 
sleep, wrapped in our blankets, and a few Arabs who 
wished to "guard us" crouched near by, in the very 



234 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

shadow of the Sphinx. Before lying down the Arabs 
had asked us to shoot at a jackal. I suspected that it 
was a trick to see if we were armed, but we replied that 
we did not care to kill a harmless animal. Whenever 
awake I heard the dogs in the neighboring village bark- 
ing. I noticed the blueness of the Egyptian sky at this 
late hour of night. I remembered having seen a picture 
in the Paris Louvre or Luxembourg — I forget which — 
giving an Egyptian night scene with the sky blue. It 
seemed unnatural then, but now I see that the artist was 
true to Nature's night sky in Egypt. 

We slept well in the sweet desert air and on the soft 
sand. Waking up, however, about four o'clock in the 
morning, when the moon had set and morning twilight 
had not yet come, I saw an Arab slowly stealing toward 
Barnard and carefully lifting the corner of the blanket 
till he had uncovered the coat pocket. From his actions 
he seemed to be in search of money. I then spoke 
sharply to the Arab and waked up Barnard. The Arab 
pretended that he had only been "tucking" Barnard in. 
After that we sat watch and watch the rest of the night. 
Strange to say, we were very much bitten by fleas. 
What they can find to sustain life on in this barren sand, 
I do not know. However, I am satisfied that the nour- 
ishment there cannot be very abundant, for they all had 
voracious appetites. 

Monday, February 7 

The moon had set behind a few light clouds. Toward 
six it was my watch and I was trying to make out the 
features of the Sphinx. Suddenly I saw it lighted up by 
the first rays of the morning twilight that came with the 
quickness of a flash. We climbed the Great Pyramid, 
getting to the top a half-hour before the sun rose. We 



BREAKFAST WITH AN ARAB 235 

saw the gray and pink tints and then the beautiful 
warm colors which, later still, faded into "the common 
light of day." 

We came down and breakfasted in the house, or rather 
hut, of one of the Arabs. He seemed much pleased that 
we accepted his invitation. We found on crawling on 
our hands and knees into his one-story stone and mud 
plaster hut that a carpet was spread before us. It was 
woven in long strips of black and red and was thick and 
strong. We made some pretense at trying to take off 
our shoes, but our host would not allow that. At the 
door we met his wife, who shook hands with us and then 
kissed her own hand, put it to her head and bowed. 
We were immediately in the principal room. Our host 
told us his house was not finished. The roof was only 
cornstalks laid over palm-tree poles and not woven. It 
keeps off the sun, while rain they never have. The 
cooking was done out of doors. Mahomet, our host, in- 
vited in some friends and showed us his two sons while 
his wife was getting breakfast ready. We sat down on 
the carpets with crossed legs, for there were no chairs. 

Mahomet said he was going to send his oldest son, 
Solomon, to school and then make him a soldier. None 
of these Arabs can read, not even the chief. We asked 
after Mahajob, the strong man who had befriended us 
before, and for Sardi, a bright little boy of about four- 
teen. They told us that Sardi's sister had died since we 
had been there. However, both Sardi and Mahajob 
came in to see us. Breakfast was soon brought in in a 
shallow basket. We had boiled ducks' eggs with salt and 
pepper, goat's milk, some Arabian bread, rather coarse 
and made with the bran in round, flat loaves, and some 
white, saltless butter or buttery cheese. We were sup- 
plied with about four times as much as we could eat, but 



236 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

we relished the food we took. Black and very good 
coffee was brought in to us and poured from a silver 
coffee-pot into pretty little china cups. Such refine- 
ment seemed strange to see in a mud hut. But our host 
explained that they had to build small houses so as to 
appear poorer than they were, as under the pretense of 
back taxes the chief would take anything of value he 
could lay hands on. 

An Egyptian buffalo or ox kept looking in at the door 
as we were eating. The dogs were numerous and barked 
a great deal. They lived on the tops of the houses and 
came down only for foraging excursions. 

Our host was very polite and attentive to our words 
and wants, and we gave him a present of money, which 
he readily accepted. He urged us not to pay the chiefs 
the usual two-shilling charge at the top of the pyramid. 
He said it was an imposition they had no right to place 
on us, and he wanted us not to pay, saying he would 
go to Cairo with us and see General Stanton and the 
Khedive about it, and got quite excited. However, we 
did pay the two shillings and hoped our friend got into 
no difficulty from the sheikh or chief, who is judge, jury, 
and jailer, and from whose decisions there is no appeal 
for a poor man. The sheikhs are quite independent of 
the people, for they are selected for life. General Stone 
confirmed this and said that the Egyptian courts were 
corrupt and the decisions usually obtained by bribery, 
and that there was no justice at all for the lower classes. 
These had to protect themselves as best they could by 
hiding their money and valuable chattels. (This is a 
great contrast to the present absolute justice in the 
courts in Egypt under the British occupation.) 



CHAPTER XV 

ROME (VIA NAPLES)— AMERICAN AND ENGLISH 
AMBASSADORS 

Tuesday, February 8 

Took the steamer Ebre of the Messagerie Line for 
Naples. On board I saw a good deal of the Reverend C. 
Haggard, of England, and a little of Mr. Ashbury, the 
former owner of the yacht Cambria which beat the 
American schooner on the great race across the ocean. 

Saturday, February 12 

Naples did not prove very hospitable. 

Passed the volcano Stromboli, which was long in 
sight, rising straight out of the water. About eight in 
the evening we passed the island of Capri. Vesuvius 
was under a heavy cloud. While coming to anchor, the 
moon rose behind Vesuvius so that we saw it below the 
smoke which rested horizontally, stretching toward the 
south and above the mountain. When the moon was 
behind the cloud the effect was beautiful, indeed. On 
coming into Naples it seemed like turning toward home 
and, with the cold, snow-touched wind in my face, while 
alone on the upper deck, I burst out singing, "Oh, Carry 
Me Back to Old Virginny." 

I secured a good pension on the Chiaia, the best part 
of Naples, for ten francs a day, all included. There was 
a cheaper one for eight. At Naples I saw the usual 
sights, climbed Vesuvius which was in partial eruption, 
visited Pompeii, Capri, Baise, Virgil's tomb, where I 
quoted line after line of hexameters, and made other ex- 
peditions. I met, too, many pleasant English and Amer- 



238 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

icans, but there was little out of the way to mention ex- 
cepting that I called on Baron Haoverman, who lived at 
the Castel Nuovo, a brother-in-law of the Vicomtesse 
de Perusse, to whom she had given me a cordial 
letter of introduction. He was out and in five days re- 
turned the call and we had a pleasant talk, but he gave 
no other recognition of the letter and never even took 
me inside of his house. They told me many of the 
Neapolitan nobility were both poor and proud. They 
could not afford to entertain, and it was only by painful 
deprivation at home that they could keep a carriage 
and horses for outside show, a thing which they felt 
essential for their station in life. Not only the nobles 
but the people generally seem to be poor. There are no 
industries giving employment, no saved-up capital with 
which to start business. The hotels are run mostly by 
Swiss, and the other common business of selling tor- 
toise-shell articles, corals, etc., to strangers is of rather a 
parasitic kind, and over all is the reign of terror from the 
secret societies. 

Tuesday, February 22 

To-day I passed King Victor Emmanuel and the Queen, 
each in a separate carriage, on their way toward Naples. 
I cannot leave Naples without paying a tribute to it. 
There is the beautiful blue water of the bay with Capri 
and Sorrento in the distance, sometimes purple and 
sometimes azure, Vesuvius smoking at the left and a 
background of hills with villas, churches, monasteries 
and vineyards, altogether a scene of rich harmonies of 
color and form that will linger in the mind among its 
sweetest visions. Every little cab has its horse decorated 
with spangles and colored tassels. The sharp cracking 
of the whips, the men and boys sunning themselves in 



SEEING ROME 239 

picturesque attitudes as if taking part in an opera, and 
the women strolling about with their pretty headdresses 
and aprons, give altogether an air of ease, gayety, and 
careless happiness which pervades the place. 

Saturday, February 26 

Left Naples for Rome. For the first eight days or so 
devoted myself almost wholly to seeing the wonderful 
sights in this ancient city, not delivering my letters or 
seeing English or American friends, as, when once in the 
maelstrom of society in Rome, one has hardly time for 
anything else. 

Monday, March 6 ' 

Delivered letters of introduction to George P. Marsh, 
the American Minister, from my father and to Sir Augus- 
tus Paget, the English Ambassador, from Lord Tenter- 
den. I am paying eight francs a day for my pension, 
including wine and everything but candles. 

Saturday, March 11 

Suddenly cleared up at half-past eleven at night. 
Donned thick overcoat and scarf and strolled down the 
Corso and stopped at Trajan's Forum for a few mo- 
ments. While on the Via Alessandrina I saw two hearses 
on their nightly duties, and as they crossed each other 
the drivers gave a lively whistle of recognition. One of 
the hearses stopped in front of me, so I stepped aside in 
the shadow of a wall and waited to see what would fol- 
low. A man got off the box next the driver and entered 
the house close by. The door was immediately opened 
for him. Not long after I heard a shaking of a cloth, and 
on glancing overhead I saw a black pall drawn quickly 
back from the window, just under the eaves. Soon 



240 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

after a man and woman walked up to the hearse, not 
coming from the house, but from a cross-street. 

Then the door of the house opened again and the man 
who had gone up appeared carrying a long white pine 
box with a large black cross painted on the top. The 
stranger who had come up with a lady on his arm helped 
to put this box in the hearse, where it made the sixth 
with five others like itself. Each coffin had a crayon 
number hastily written on one end. The stranger who 
had come up seemed to be known by the man at the 
hearse. The only other person attending to what was 
going on put his or her head out of the upper window, 
from which the pall had been shaken. The hearse was 
quickly shut, the man mounted beside the driver, and 
off they went, dead and living, at a brisk trot, the four 
lanterns at the corners of the hearse marking its way 
down the street until it turned off, and the lady and 
gentleman who had mysteriously appeared from a 
cross-street disappeared quite as mysteriously. There 
was no prayer and no priest. Perhaps the body was 
merely being carried to a dead house to await a funeral 
or perhaps it was the body of a stranger. The Italians' 
fear of death and contagion is so great that it is said 
they dispose of a stranger in a few hours after death and 
with little or no ceremony. 

Walked on in the moonlight, passed the Basilica of 
Constantine with its ponderous arches, which gave the 
model of those of St. Peter's, and under the Arch of 
Titus, with the bas-relief, including the seven-branched 
candlestick, borne in his triumph from Jerusalem. The 
moon was one day past the full and there was an occa- 
sional cloud passing under it. Shadows below the arches 
of the Colosseum were dark and gloomy, but the in- 
side of that great amphitheatre was flooded with light. 



DINNER WITH THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR 241 

There were two parties wandering in and out, each with 
its torch nickering and looking to me more like spirits 
coming back to find something lost centuries ago. 

I wandered next through the Forum and back under 
the Capitoline Hill, past the Arch of Septimus Severus, 
through the Via Bonella, and got to bed soon after two. 

Sunday, March 12 

Went to the American church and to the second serv- 
ice in the English church. In the evening I dined with 
Mrs. Dorr, of Boston, "very informally" as by invita- 
tion. Miss Trollope, a niece of Anthony Trollope, and 
Baroness Hoffmann, nee Lily Ward, were the guests. 

Tuesday, March 14 

At eight o'clock I dined with Sir Augustus Paget, 
K.C.B., the British Ambassador. Lady Paget is a 
German, Countess Hohenthal, and is very handsome 
and agreeable. She has two young children and is lady 
of honor to the Crown Princess of Prussia. At table 
were Mr. Wurts, the American Secretary of Legation, 
Colonel Dalton and daughter, a young Mr. Wilson, Lady 
Paget's niece, and the German secretary. Strawberries 
for dinner! Sir Augustus said that the Italian Parlia- 
ment trifle with their work, that they do not take up 
serious questions, and that they broke up or tried to 
break up the Ministry out of mere spite or petty 
jealousy, and the result is that no one who is capable is 
willing to take the responsibility of the Government. 
Paget is about fifty-three years of age and his wife 
thirty-seven. He has had a long and honorable career 
in the diplomatic service, having been in Paris, Athens, 
Egypt, The Hague, Lisbon, Saxony, Sweden, Norway, 
and Denmark. He was the grandson of the Earl of 



242 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Westmoreland. (Later Sir Augustus was transferred as 
Ambassador to Austria and died in 1896.) 

There was some little talk of the question of prece- 
dence. It appears that a claim had been made — I 
could not make out by whom, perhaps it was a wholly- 
theoretical question — that an imperial princess should 
go ahead of the daughter of the Queen on the ground 
that "emperor" was a higher title than that of "king." 
Instance was made of the Duchess of Edinburgh. The 
Duke of Edinburgh is the second son of Queen Victoria 
and married about two years ago Her Imperial High- 
ness, the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, only 
daughter of the Emperor of Russia. I did n't under- 
stand that there has been any actual dispute, but the 
question was an interesting one and might become im- 
portant. 

Wednesday, March 15 

Immediately after lunch went to the Italian Parlia- 
ment. We had very good seats in the gallery and from 
there could see the whole house. The members sit in 
armchairs which are all arranged in semi-circular rows, 
the rows being raised as they recede from the centre as 
in a theatre. Before each member is a little folding desk 
which discloses an inkstand, three or four small per- 
pendicular pigeon-holes for papers, and makes a com- 
fortable-sized writing-table when unfolded. Beneath 
this is a small cupboard for holding blank paper. There 
are in all seats for about 480 or 490 members. Before 
the front row of seats is a large, curved table for the 
Opposition bench. The Government Cabinet members 
sit at a long table under a raised platform on which are, 
first, the voting urns, then the passage for the members 
to pass when depositing their votes, and above that 



THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT 243 

the Speaker's (to use the American term) or Presi- 
dent's chair. Between the Opposition and Government 
benches is a flat space with a small table at which short- 
hand reporters sit and take down all that is said. 

When we came in the members were voting. There 
were three urns and each member was given or got for 
himself three slips of paper, one green, one red, and the 
third white, and wrote something on them and then 
deposited one in each of the urns, marked with the cor- 
responding colors, the green paper into the green urn, 
etc. As they passed in front of the President, before 
voting, the name of each member was marked off the 
list. The man keeping this list seemed to be a member, 
for he voted himself. There was a small attendance 
only. At 3 p.m., two hours after the nominal opening, 
there were but 105 members present. There is no 
rostrum as in France, but each member speaks from his 
place and gets the floor, as with us and in England, by 
attracting the President's eye. Members do not wear 
their hats as in England nor was there any crying out, 
but all was quiet and orderly — a perfection of an as- 
sembly in outward appearance. 

At half -past five went to Mr. Wurts's reception. His 
rooms were very tasteful, and many diplomats and 
distinguished strangers in Rome were present. 

Friday, March 17 

After lunch I went to Mrs. W. W. Story's reception, 
where I was introduced to Mrs. Terry, the remarried 
widow of Crawford, the sculptor, and mother of my 
St. Paul's schoolmate, Marion Crawford (who later 
became celebrated as an author), and also a young 
English lady named Miss Bailey. During the evening 
I went to Mrs. George P. Marsh's reception for for- 



244 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

eigners, hoping especially to see some interesting Ital- 
ians, but got put off on some English young ladies for 
most of the evening. They were hard to entertain. 
Their short, crisp "Yes" and "No" were like so many 
stumbling-blocks to conversation. Mrs. Marsh, the 
wife of George P. Marsh, the American Minister, is a 
dignified, gracious, accomplished, and fine represent- 
ative of the best Sort of American lady. 

Sunday, March 19 

Called on Lady Paget, who received Sunday afternoon. 
A number of people present, coming in and going out, 
making their formal calls, but giving very little oppor- 
tunity for any interesting or prolonged conversation. 

Saturday, March 25 

To-day is the day of the consecration of the first Prot- 
estant church building within the walls of Pome. It is 
the Episcopal Church of America. I arrived at ten- 
forty -five, and to my surprise everything was in order 
and looking nicely, where only a day or two before all 
was confusion, dust, and rubbish. Great bare places 
on the walls, to be filled up with marbles eventually, 
had been covered with tapestry, flowers had been put 
around, and carpets laid down, and all was orderly and 
church-like. 

The service was interesting, of course, and the sing- 
ing good and effective. The sermon, by our American 
Bishop Littlejohn, was very long and doctrinal and con- 
tained some talk of the advantages of national divi- 
sions of the Church, prophesying separations of it in the 
English possessions of India, Africa, and Canada, in 
the same way that the American Episcopal Church had 
separated from the English after the Revolution. All 



CALL ON GEORGE P. MARSH 245 

this must, of course, have been very pleasant and ac- 
ceptable to the English, who formed a large part of the 
congregation. Some of them contributed to the church 
and there were three English bishops and several Brit- 
ish clergymen officiating. The sermon was eloquent in 
passages, and had it been shorter, more people might 
have been left to put something into the offertory when 
the sermon was over. The second service ended at 
half -past two, making three and a half hours of con- 
tinuous attention, or inattention I fear from natural 
fatigue of mind. 

Sunday, March 26 

Went to the service in the new Episcopal church. The 
sermon to-day was by the Bishop of Peterboro, England. 
He is said to be the most eloquent preacher, if not person, 
in Great Britain. The sermon was extemporaneous, but 
there was never the least fear of a pause or misuse of 
a word. It was a logical, connected discourse, very 
thoughtful and solid, and waxing eloquent in places. 
The words were always well chosen, showing careful 
scholarship and doubtless frequent practice in writing. 
Called on Mr. Marsh, our American Minister. He 
said he was ashamed to see me on account of the action 
of the United States Senate Committee. My father had 
been nominated by General Grant as Minister to Great 
Britain and the Senate Committee had reported against 
confirmation. Marsh said that it was a greater dis- 
grace to the country than Belknap's actions for which 
he was being indicted. Belknap was a member of 
Grant's Cabinet. His actions, Marsh said, were those 
of one man while this was the deliberate action of sev- 
eral. He hoped that if my father was not confirmed he 
would be made President of the United States. He said 



246 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

that Van Buren was nominated President just after 
being rejected by the Senate for the same office and to 
the same country. 

Mr. Arthur Dexter, who was present, told me that 
he had just got a letter from General McClellan ad- 
vising him not to go back to a country whose Senate 
Committee reported against the confirmation of such 
a man as Mr. Dana, but rather to stay in Europe for 
the rest of his days and disclaim America altogether. 
Marsh thought that this was a question of senatorial 
courtesy. President Grant, contrary to the usual cus- 
tom, nominated my father without consulting the 
leading Senators of his party, who had other plans for 
filling the mission to the Court of St. James, includ- 
ing a whole set of changes, one of which was getting 
Don Cameron, of Pennsylvania, into the United States 
Senate. 

I called on Lady Paget later in the afternoon to bid 
her good-bye. She was fortunately in and I was gra- 
ciously received by the handsome and cheerful ambas- 
sadress. We had a chat on various topics, none of great 
importance, but all very agreeable. I came away with 
the impression of having had a delightful call. 

In this account of my visit in Rome I have not only 
omitted almost all of my sight-seeing, but very many 
delightful social events with English and American 
friends and acquaintances, where the experience was 
not different from that of the usual social life in that 
delightful city. 



CHAPTER XVI 
ENGLAND AGAIN VIA TURIN AND PARIS 

Left Rome for Florence, Venice, Milan, and Turin. At 
Turin I saw Professor Danna and Count Sclopis. 

Monday, April 24. Turin. 

Received a letter from our Minister in Rome, George 
P. Marsh, with an introduction to Professor Danna, 
avvocato of Turin and also a professor at the University. 
To the University I drove to get Professor Danna's ad- 
dress and then left my card and letter to him at his 
house. He lived au quatrieme next to the top story in 
some nice apartments in the Piazza Maria Teresa. 
The stairway belonging to the whole building was 
rather old and the stone steps were not as clean as 
might be, but that is not uncommon in Europe where 
the stairs correspond almost to the streets with us. 

After dinner Professor Danna called on me. He is a 
tall, wiry, fine-looking man, with gray hair. He is ear- 
nest, enthusiastic, optimistic, and kindly. There was 
a little confusion at first because he said there was an- 
other Richard Dana traveling in Europe who had left a 
letter on him, but on learning that I was my father's 
son, he was much pleased. He said that Count Sclopis 
had expressed a wish to see me if I were the son of the 
man who had written the notes to Wheaton's Inter- 
national Law. Count Sclopis was one of the judges in 
the Geneva Arbitration Case between the United States 
and Great Britain that decided on the Alabama claims. 
Professor Danna promised to call for me next morning 



248 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

to take me to see the University, the town, and Count 
Sclopis. 

Tuesday, April 25 

Lunched at one of the cafes with Professor Danna and 
we then went to the University, where we heard a lec- 
ture on "The Influence of the Discovery of America 
on European History and Political Economy." There 
were about two hundred persons present including a 
number of ladies. Professor Danna introduced me to 

several people, one of whom, General , tried to 

present me after the seance to the grandson of Lafayette, 
who had sat opposite us but who went off too soon. 

After a cup of coffee in a neighboring cafe, Professor 
Danna took me to see Count Sclopis. The Count lives 
au premier above some shops, and the general staircase 
was narrow and dark, but the rooms were large and 
comfortable and servants in livery were in attendance. 
The Count appeared glad to see me and shook me 
warmly by the hand. He is nearly eighty years old and 
has a large frame. His hair is not yet gray, and he is 
still capable of work, but he shows some signs of age. I 
stayed there about half an hour. He asked me about my 
travels, about William M. Eyarts and Charles Francis 
Adams, Sr., and sent a message of regards by me to 
Lord Selborne. In the course of the conversation he 
spoke of my father's notes on Wheaton's International 
Law. He wanted to know how many editions of them 
there had been, but I could not tell him. He spoke 
highly of them and said that they had been of great 
assistance to him. He wished me to send his compli- 
ments to my father when I wrote. He saw me to the 
door and shook hands with me three times in all. 

The Italians I have met to-day — and this is, with 



WALK WITH PROFESSOR DANNA AT TURIN 249 

the exception of the "Baron" at Naples, the first time 
I have met any eminent ones on intimate terms — 
seemed warm-hearted, kindly, and simple; something 
deeper than mere good manners. An Englishman in 
Florence who knew many told me that he found them 
on long acquaintance to be sincere, faithful, and friendly. 
The Count was seated in a comfortable library, fur- 
nished in a cozy English or American style. 

Professor Danna had not yet asked me to his house. 
He apologized, however, for not taking me there to 
lunch. 

Wednesday, April 26 

At quarter past seven in the morning Professor Danna 
and I started out again. He is an early riser. We walked 
across the river, which was swollen with recent rains, 
and ascended the hill called "II Monte dei Capuc- 
cini" and had a partial view of the Alps. The sun was 
shining brightly, but there was a thick haze which pre- 
vented our seeing much of them. The view which I did 
get, however, fired me with enthusiasm for next sum- 
mer's trip in Switzerland. At about nine Professor 
Danna left me, inviting me to come to his house in the 
afternoon. During our morning walk Professor Danna 
asked if we had any American literature besides trans- 
lations from other languages. I tried to give him some 
adequate idea of our enormous literature and of the 
excellence of some of our best works. 

I let him know that a considerable atnount of classical 
reading was required to enter our universities. This was 
new to him. I also had an opportunity to talk on meta- 
physics and philosophy of which I availed myself, and 
I think I gave him some idea of the sort of work we do 
in college. He was fundamentally wrong on American 



250 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

religious thought, and he could hardly understand how 
such difference of opinions between the various sects 
could exist with such perfect toleration as we have. 

In talking about our country I soon saw that he had 
the idea that our last war, the Civil War, was between 
North and South America; that South America en- 
couraged slavery, and that the United States, which 
included most of North America, waged war against 
South America to break up the system and free the 
slaves. He thought it was so strange that North Amer- 
ica should want to be joined to South America in one 
republic when they were so naturally separated by the 
Gulf of Mexico, with only the narrow Isthmus of Pan- 
ama to connect. Carefully and as politely as I was able 
I explained his mistake and gave him the best idea I 
could, in so short a time, of the size of America and the 
total independence of the United States from the rest of 
the American continent, north or south. This ignorance 
was on the part of a professor in one of the most cele- 
brated universities in Italy. He is known as a literary 
man, has intimate relations with the leading men of 
the north of Italy, attends lectures on the influence of 
the discovery of America on European history, for ex- 
ample, and reads Italian newspapers every day. 

He thought that the American family of Dana, 
though the name was spelt differently, was descended 
from the Italian, which is really a Piedmontese family. 
He suggested that several of the Piedmontese in the 
last great religious persecution had left the country 
and that they had gone to America. Unfortunately 
for his theory; that persecution and emigration was 
after the first Dana had arrived and settled in the Brit- 
ish colonies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (It is pretty 
well settled that the "original" Richard Dana came, 



PROFESSOR DANNA AND HIS FAMILY 251 

about 1640, from England, where there were families 
of the name of Dana at that time.) 

Visited picture galleries, and after lunch went to 
Professor Danna's apartment. I saw his family, a wife 
and four daughters. They were all cordial and pleasant. 
There is a superb view of the Alps from the window. 
We saw, I think, Monte Rosa. 

"How faintly-flushed, how phantom fair 
Was Monte Rosa, hanging there." 

We drank healths in Italian wine with the family and 
exchanged compliments. I took a great fancy to Mrs. 
Danna, with her quiet, good breeding, pleasant manners, 
and motherly ways with her children. I stayed only 
three quarters of an hour and then went with Professor 
Danna to see a collection of armor in the Royal Palace. 
It was the best of the kind I had seen anywhere. 

Professor Danna has just about the position I always 
supposed. The family is eminently respectable and 
respected, not noble or even very prominent, but a 
family of gentlemen; men of education, including pro- 
fessors and clergymen, for many generations back. In 
Turin, where they measure their salutes by the regard 
for the man saluted, Professor Danna receives a low 
bow except from the titled families. They, too, show 
respect, making a kindly if not profound bow and a 
slight lift of the hat. 

Thursday, April 27 

Left for Paris by the new Mont Cenis tunnel. 

Friday, April 28 

In Paris the leaves are well out, especially the horse- 
chestnuts, though the nights are chilly. I went to the 
Layas' who had a room reserved for me. 



252 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Sunday, April 30 

In the evening Signor Franceschi, a great Italian singer 
and singing master, perhaps the best in Paris for men's 
voices, called and sang for us. He did this with great 
ease and there was nothing forced about his method. 
He sang, too, with great delicacy of expression. He 
coaches many of the leading grand opera soloists. 

Tuesday, May 9 

In the evening was the second of the receptions at the 

Lavas'. Many of the old friends, with the addition of 

the handsome and attractive Countess V who 

was here the week before. She is French by birth 
and married a Russian count of good family, but what 
we would consider bad morals. He, the Lay as told me, 
was fascinating, but no sooner was he married to this 
beautiful woman than he began to carry on with others; 
not that they were more beautiful than his wife, for 
such would be hard to find, but from mere love of ex- 
citement in intrigue and conquest. When he came to 
Paris he wanted from his French teacher only words 
for making love, paying compliments, and the like. The 
Countess has two pretty and attractive children, a boy 
and a girl about seven and eight, and she is still young, 
about twenty-five or six. She is a younger cousin of 
Mademoiselle Laya. She takes this conduct of her hus- 
band somewhat as a matter of course and hopes he will 
come back to her before long. He assumes the role of 
Don Juan and glories in it. That is his ideal and his 
career in life. 

Thursday, May 11 

Visited the French National Library and one of the 

librarians, a friend of the Layas, took me about. 



THE FRENCH NATIONAL LIBRARY 253 

When one is uncertain of the name of the book 
wanted, considerable difficulty arises from the fact that 
there is no complete catalogue. The librarian acknowl- 
edged the inconvenience, but said it was difficult to 
remedy. They had been working for years on a cat- 
alogue and had only got a short way down the alphabet, 
and by the time it was anywhere near completion, it 
would have to be wholly revised on account of new 
books. I told him of the card system in the Boston Pub- 
lic Library where there were nearly as many books as in 
the French National. He professed to know of the sys- 
tem, but thought it would be "clumsy." 

When a reader has finished a book, he takes it back to 
the desk, and if he takes out no more he has a duplicate 
paper given him with rendu stamped on it. This has 
to be given the door-keeper before he is allowed to pass 
out. 

The magasin, where are the books oftenest used, was 
so badly ventilated, the librarian told me, that in the 
upper part of it the books were being injured by the 
heat. I was shown shelves devoted to American lit- 
erature. Cooper's novels were conspicuous and Marry at 
appeared there, an Englishman, though it is true he was 
in America for some time and wrote one or two works 
there. There were no private rooms in the library for 
special workers, but behind the clerk's desk there were 
tables where some fifteen or twenty could be accommo- 
dated and could work; not with less noise, however, for 
there was a good deal of it from the clerks' passing back 
and forth, but at least apart from the multitude. 

The whole library was a curious illustration of in- 
genuity and inconvenience combined. There were all 
sorts of little railroads, electric bells, small elevators 
for books, several speaking-tubes, and a double glass 



254 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

slide so arranged that one end or the other was always 
kept shut so as to avoid drafts, yet the reading-room 
was so cold that at this season, when there were no 
fires, the clerks and librarians had to keep on their over- 
coats. From lack of a catalogue the public was put to 
great inconvenience. The principal railway was never 
used, it being found much easier to carry the books 
for the short distance than to go through the loading 
and unloading. 

The whole afternoon I spent in the annual Paris 
Salon, where there were over three thousand pictures. 
The collection, I thought, was very creditable, indeed, 
though lacking in great masterpieces. Even Dore's 
"Entrance into Jerusalem" was not so very wonderful. 
The painting appeared to be too flat. There was not 
enough difference in the color of the near and of the dis- 
tant greens. There was no air or atmosphere in the 
picture, values were lost sight of, and effects of distance 
were produced by perspective or strong contrasts of 
light and shadow. However, the life and expression 
in the figures were very striking and the whole subject 
well conceived; in short, I thought it better drawn than 
colored. There was a superabundance of paintings of 
nude women in various postures. There were also some 
portraits of celebrated demi-monde women. 

Sunday, May 14 

At dinner was the sweet Countess V again, at the 

Lavas'. I bade every one good-bye on retiring, as I 
was to start off early the next morning. Madame Laya, 
who has been almost as kind to me as a mother, was 
very much affected at my going away. She is a brave, 
good woman, now pretty old and infirm. She has had 
a great deal of suffering in her life. 



A FRENCH COURT 255 

Left Paris for London by way of Rouen, Havre, and 
Southampton. At Rouen went to the Court of Appeals 
in the early afternoon and heard a sentence of impris- 
onment for two years and the beginning of a new suit 
and the swearing-in of the jury. When I saw a sentence 
for two years' imprisonment quietly given by the judge, 
as if it were a matter of course, the look of despair on 
the condemned's face, and the guards marching him off, 
and at the same time had not heard the case myself, it 
seemed almost cruel. The judges were dressed in red 
and the avocats had long black gowns with large square 
white ties hanging from the neck. The jury were sworn 
in one by one instead of all together as with us. 

On the train from Rouen to Havre I rode with a nice 
English gentleman and lady of very quiet manners and 
dress and much dignity and I saw them again on the 
steamer. 

Tuesday, May 16 

Passed the Isle of Wight early in the morning and Cowes 
by half-past five. We saw the Solent on our left and 
got into Southampton after breakfast. Again I hap- 
pened to ride in the carriage with the same English 
people as from Rouen to Havre. We fell into conver- 
sation and I found the gentleman very intelligent on 
American politics. Suddenly he asked me, not having 
the slightest idea of my name, but knowing I was an 
American, whether I thought there was any chance of 
Dana's being elected President of the United States. I 
happened to have in my hand a pamphlet by my father 
which he had recently mailed me entitled "Aliens and 
Alien Enemies" on a branch of international law. I 
suddenly had a fit of shyness. I thought it would be so 
strange to tell them I was the son of the very man they 



256 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

were talking of. Of course I had my visiting cards, this 
pamphlet, and letters addressed to me for confirma- 
tion, but I never told who I was. (Ever afterwards I 
wished I had plucked up courage and made myself 
known to these cultivated and agreeable people.) 

After the Continent, the houses in the suburbs of 
London struck me as dirtier, smaller, and uglier than 
ever and in London itself the usual dwelling-houses low. 
The public buildings, however, looked well. The wind 
was east, blowing from the "City," and the air had 
that peculiar London odor, a mixture of malt and 
bituminous coal smoke. The air was soft and soothing. 
Went to Mrs. Brooks's where I had secured lodgings. 
Met an American named Horsfall, a friend of Henry F. 
Wild's, who is engaged to one of my sisters. He in- 
vited me on a party to see the great Derby races on my 
return from Oxford and Cambridge. 



CHAPTER XVII 
OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE 

Thursday, May 18 

Arrived in Oxford in the early afternoon. I entered 
by the road from the station. Had I known how ugly 
that part of the town was I should have got* out at the 
station before Oxford and entered by the Magdalen 
Bridge. Coming in as I did by the station and freight 
yards with goods trains about, I was a little disap- 
pointed, not finding it at first sight as romantic as I had 
expected. 

The students do not wear tall silk hats even exception- 
ally, but either the soft cap, or round hat of dark stiff 
felt, or a straw hat with the ribbon of their college crew 
or cricket club. They carry canes in clear weather and 
umbrellas in wet, They dress like, though perhaps 
rather better than, Harvard students and have the same 
general air. The cap and gown are not now required in 
the afternoon and, of course, are not worn when not 
exacted by the rules. I met many fellows with their 
flannel suits for boating or cricket, with soft, round 
cloth caps , of different colors , having small visors . White 
flannel trousers are always worn in the exercise suits. 
A dark blue coat is the most common, with the arms 
of the college over the left pocket. Magdalen men wear 
a bright scarlet coat. I called on Edmund M. Parker 
(later Bishop of New Hampshire) at Keble College and 
found him in, just putting on his flannel boating suit 
or "flannels" as it is called, to run with his crew. It is 
the second day of the bumping races. 

The Keble College dormitory rooms are small in 



258 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

comparison with most of those in Harvard. They are, 
however, for only one man each instead of for two. 
Each study has a bedroom attached. The entries are 
as dreary and dirty as those in Hollis, or Stoughton, 
or Gray's at Harvard. We went down to the boats by 
the broad walk with its overarching trees and the mead- 
ows at one side. 

I saw the river and barges for the first time. The 
barges, which are moored along the bank, look very like 
the saloons of small river steamers. They are flat boats 
with a top not unlike a horse-car, only larger, with rows 
of windows close together. One end of each is fitted up 
as a reading-room with chairs, tables, daily and sport- 
ing papers, writing-materials, and furnishings more or 
less luxurious according to the taste and wealth of the 
various colleges. Keble is the only college without a 
barge. It hires some rooms on the opposite bank and 
further up the river. 

The smallest and poorest barge is that of Brasenose, 
which bumped University last night and is now head 
of the river and was the college of "Tom Brown" at 
Oxford. The other end of each barge is an ordinary 
dressing-room, generally with hand-basins, but never 
baths, for the use of members. The dressing accommo- 
dations are rather small. Each barge has its college 
flag flying, and the University barge for the use of the 
'Varsity crew and officers of the O.U.B.C. has the flags 
of all the colleges hung from one mast in the order of 
the boats as they stand on the river, and also has a band 
of music. There were many ladies, mostly young, with 
gay dresses, bright cheeks, and sparkling eyes, on the 
top of their favorite college barges or along the banks, 
making a brilliant and lively scene. 

We crossed the river to get to the towpath by means 



OXFORD ROWING 259 

of a little "punt" poled by a water-man who expects 
a penny unless you are a subscriber to Sadler, the boat- 
builder. The river here is about two hundred feet broad, 
while in most places it is not more than one hundred. 
We went down with the crowd of students and I had 
pointed out to me the "Gut," the "Lay Bridges," and 
other classical spots. We stayed above the "Gut" and 
waited for the boats. 

It was the second division that was rowing. Each 
college at Oxford has a boat club and nearly every club 
sends an eight-oar crew to row and maintain its position 
on the river. There are twenty-one eight-oar crews 
racing this year, and as the course is short, they are 
for convenience divided into two divisions. The races 
are rowed in the following manner: The crews are 
moored along the bank one hundred and fifty feet apart 
and start off at the signal of the gun firing. They row 
upstream against the current for about one and a third 
miles. If a crew catches up with one in front and suc- 
ceeds in touching the boat ahead with their oars or prow, 
the crew thus catching up is said to have made a 
"bump." The races are continued for eight days and 
each crew having made a bump is placed on the follow- 
ing day above the crew it has tagged. The second divi- 
sion rows first and the boat at its head rows last in the 
first division an hour and a half afterwards. Each year 
the crews are placed in the order they were at the end 
of the bumping races the year before, and if any college 
should fail to send a crew, it has to begin at the bot- 
tom of the line the next year and work its way up, if 
it can. 

We had not long to wait, but at exactly twenty-five 
minutes past five the five-minute gun was fired and at 
twenty-nine past, the one-minute gun, and at half- 



260 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

past, the starting gun. The latter is fired at the exact 
time for which the races are appointed. If a boat is not 
in position and ready, it loses its place. There is no 
delay on account of rough weather on that narrow river, 
and so certain is one of promptness that there is no time 
wasted and people make their arrangements to dine, 
take tea, or study in the hour and a half between the 
two divisions. Soon we heard a distant roar and saw 
the crowds of fellows in their flannels running along the 
towpath below the "Gut" and could just catch glimpses 
of the jerseys of the crews swinging backward and for- 
ward in regular time. The men running on the bank 
divided themselves into clusters, cheering the boats of 
their respective colleges. I ran along with the crews 
the last part of the way. Their rowing was in general 
not unlike ours, only that in Harvard as a rule none but 
the University crews carry out the correct principles 
so well in actual practice. The men were not stronger 
or larger than members of our ordinary class crews, if 
I except two or three crews in the first division. 

Between the races of the divisions Green, a friend of 
Parker, put my name down at the Oxford Union and 
showed me their library, reading- and debating-rooms. 
The entrance to the Union was not prepossessing. It was 
through an alley, but the building was pretty, built of 
red and black bricks, and was well arranged. The de- 
bating-room was fitted up very like the House of Com- 
mons in Parliament. Around the gallery, in which, 
alone, strangers were admitted during debates, were 
cases of books, which gave a look of richness to the 
room and served as library at the same time. There was 
a large, comfortable writing-room in which were numer- 
ous tables well supplied for the writers' needs, including 
sealing wax. 



THE OXFORD UNION 261 

All letters of members are stamped without charge. 
The stamps are supplied at the expense of the club. 
They find that the system works very well and is cer- 
tainly a great convenience. After a hurried dinner at 
the hotel, went down to see the first division row. The 
rowing in the first division was naturally better than in 
the second. Some men rowed very finely. The crews 
had been practicing only three weeks on accounfof the 
lateness of the Easter vacation this year, and so none of 
them were perfectly "in swing together." It was only 
surprising to see that there was as much rhythm where 
the men were so little used to each other's motions. 
It showed what good coaching could do. 

The advantages for coaching at Oxford are excellent. 
There is a towpath about eight feet broad close to the 
river for twenty miles or more up and down, and so 
narrow is the river that a shout can easily be heard 
across. The coach for the University crew follows it 
on horseback, and day after day they never row out of 
his sight. 

After these last races, which took place at seven, I 
went to the Oxford Union to hear the debate. The 
question proposed was "That the present constitution 
of the House of Lords is totally unsatisfactory." The 
meeting began with some club business about buying 
books for the library and certain proposed extensions 
in the way of building. There was a good deal of calling 
out, "Hear, Hear," as in the House of Commons. One 
rather nervous fellow, beginning to speak on a simple 
matter of buying certain books, was so embarrassed 
that when several fellows called, "Speak out, don't be 
afraid," he abandoned his attempt. Upon that the 
librarian arose and requested that the House might be 
quiet enough to allow the member to proceed, for he 



262 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

did not wish any suggestion to be lost or any criticism 
shunned through the disorder of members. 

The debate on the main question of the day began 
with a very long radical speech, not well spoken and 
badly thought out, with several exaggerations and glit- 
tering generalities. There were more radical speeches 
than conservative, and yet there was a large conserva- 
tive majority in the House. At last one conservative 
member got up and gave a very good speech in manner 
and style, at least, wholly superior to any that had gone 
before. He said, in substance, Why does not every con- 
servative member jump to his feet to defend his cause 
against such attacks? Why do they show so much 
apathy? Do they feel that they are defeated? No. They 
feel that these questions have been put to the country 
and have been answered. They feel that the House of 
Lords does not need vindication from such attacks. 
That was the general outline of his speech, perhaps too 
strongly on one side, but well arranged and effective. It 
brought down a storm of applause. The speaker was a 
graduate and a "fellow." 

There was considerable noise at the back of the room, 
where a number of young men were playing tricks on 
one another, calling out and laughing. Two requests 
from the president had no effect, and then he got up 
and said that he would be very sorry to go to such an 
extremity as to use a prerogative only once employed 
before in the history of the Union, namely, to adjourn 
the meeting on account of noise, but that if it was not 
more quiet he should be obliged to do so. Then he 
spoke of the disrespect to the visitors (the gallery was 
filled with ladies and gentlemen) and hoped he would 
have nothing further to do on his part, but that the 
noise would stop of itself. The House was quiet in a 



PROFESSOR BURROWS 263 

moment. I counted some two hundred and fifty mem- 
bers on the floor at one time. I think the number must 
have risen to about three hundred later. I left about 
half-past ten while the meeting was still in session. 

Friday, May 19 

Spent the morning in writing letters at the^ Oxford 
Union, of which I had in due form been given the "privi- 
leges." On returning to the hotel I found a card from 
Professor Burrows, of All Souls, asking me to meet 
him at his college lecture about two o'clock, which I 
did after lunch. His lecture was a review and criticism 
of the ideas regarding the history of the seventeenth 
century, and especially on Clarendon, very interesting 
to me as I took a course on that period at Harvard. 
He presented me to his nephew, F. R. Burrows, a high 
rank scholar, who invited me to breakfast with him to 
meet the president and secretary of the Oxford Union 
to-morrow morning. In the lecture-room I also met 
Mrs. and Miss Burrows, who arranged to have me at 
lunch to-morrow. After the lecture Professor Burrows 
showed me about his college a little. In the main room 
was a rare picture of Jeremy Taylor, said to be the most 
authentic in existence. There was a poor one of my 
friend Sir William Heathcote, who is a fellow of All 
Souls. Professor Burrows showed me the new reredos 
in the chapel made on the remains of the old one re- 
cently discovered, and, oh, the beautiful flowers, smooth 
lawns, and grand trees all about, to say nothing of the 
satisfying architecture ! 

Charles P. Parker (later professor at Harvard) called 
and asked me to lunch at Cowley, where he is staying 
with the Cowley Fathers, on Sunday. Some of these 
young men need to be taken in hand and made to speak 



264 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

without stammering. They exaggerate in themselves 
the faults of Father Benson, the head of that order, in 
that respect. 

Went down the river to see the second division row. 
Keble made a bump. I met Louis Dyer, my beloved 
classmate at Harvard, at the hotel. He invited me to 
dine with him at the Hall in Balliol and said he would 
make arrangements to have me live in college and was 
very kind in every way. He has a perfect genius for 
friendship and his quiet humor and devotion to others 
has made him very popular, I am told, all over Oxford. 
(He was afterwards lecturer at Oxford and held many 
other distinguished positions. He died as a result of a 
bicycle accident in 1908. See the very interesting notice 
of him by William T. Piper in the Ninth Report of the 
Harvard Class of 1874, 1909, pages 34-37.) We went 
down together to the river to see the first division row. 
They pointed out to me some of the University oarsmen 
now rowing in different crews. They were very fine 
fellows, but none larger or better oarsmen than Daniel 
C. Bacon or Wendell Goodwin, my fellow members of 
the Harvard University crew. 

As I was walking through the street, I was thinking 
how little the men looked like our idea of Englishmen, 
when I saw one coming toward me and I said, "Here at 
last is the very picture of one" — bushy side whiskers, 
pantaloons with a pattern of enormous checks, a single 
eyeglass, a carefully studied squint, and a nonchalant air. 
On coming nearer it turned out to be Waldo Story, the 
elder, the son of W. W. Story, the American sculptor 
whom I had met in Rome. He invited me to dine with 
him to-morrow in Christ Church College. 

Balliol Hall, in which I dined with Dyer, is not a par- 
ticularly fine one. It has several pictures, but plain 



GLIMPSES OF UNIVERSITY LIFE 265 

walls. We dined at the strangers' table, where we had a 
good dinner, better than the ordinary one, and after- 
wards had dessert in Dyer's room, and there I met 
Lockhart, grandnephew of Sir Walter Scott, a Mr. 
Standish, and others. We passed the evening pleasantly 
with music and talking. I was the only non-smoker. We 
all sipped sherry and a large three-handled ~ mug of 
claret "cup" was passed round as is the custom. 
Balliol, Dyer's college, ranks high in scholarship, doubt- 
less the highest of any at Oxford. Its entrance exam- 
inations are severe. 

Saturday, May 20 

Went to breakfast with F. R. Burrows, of Trinity. On 
my way there I heard a great noise over the gateway, 
and on meeting Burrows a few moments afterwards 
below, he told me he had gone up into the room over the 
gate to await me, and that some fellows had locked 
him in. He made a great row to attract the porter's 
attention, who let him out. He then threw the shoes 
of those who had locked him in over on the Balliol 
College green. I found in Burrows's room Milman, 
president of the Oxford Union, and two others. We had 
to wait about an hour and a half for the secretary of the 
Oxford Union, who had overslept himself. We stayed 
talking till half -past ten, when all but Burrows had to 
gooff. Milman told me that when one has been "up" 
for a couple of years and has the general reputation of 
a "reader," he can "cut" as many lectures as he pleases 
and a large number of prayers without being called to 
task. He said that he had not attended a lecture for a 
long time, and also that after a certain point it was 
waste of time for a hard reader working for honors to 
attend lectures. 



266 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

They said that the system of gates was only a ques- 
tion of money up to twelve o'clock at night, and that 
after that hour one could be out several times, espe- 
cially if he was not a freshman, without serious trouble. 
On the whole they thought the gating system good. It 
appears that the proctors keep several professional 
runners, called "bulldogs," to chase and catch any 
students seen breaking the rules. After the others had 
gone Burrows took me to Trinity Chapel and then to 
see the celebrated Lime Walk and Christ Church Cathe- 
dral. In reading a Latin quotation, I made a false 
quantity by a slip of the tongue, and instead of im- 
mediately correcting it, I looked to see whether Burrows 
had noticed it, but I could not make out whether he 
did not notice it or was too polite to make any remark 
or even lift an eyebrow. 

We walked across the Magdalen Bridge and looked 
at the Tower and fortunately a cart and horse came 
down the opposite bank. The horse leaned down to 
drink and made altogether a perfect setting for a picture. 
I am now much more in the spirit of Oxford and be- 
gin to feel its fascinating influence. Like Niagara Falls 
it grows on one slowly. It requires several days to en- 
joy it fully. We visited Magdalen Chapel and cloisters 
and looked down Addison's Walk. Words fail me to 
express the charm and beauty of these places. 

The proctors at Oxford hold altogether an inferior 
position to those at Harvard. At Oxford they are 
nothing but a police force. They wander about the 
streets day and night and are obliged to look into bil- 
liard rooms, hotels, and bars, and have the right to 
search any house in town with only ten minutes' notice, 
by virtue of an old provision in the charter of Oxford. 
They are despised by the best students and detested 



THE OXFORD-HARVARD RACE OF 1869 267 

by the rest and get no respect from the professors or 
tutors. With us a proctor is usually a recent graduate 
who is given a room in a college hall, has to maintain 
reasonable order and quiet, but is not obliged to go 
round the town spying on the students. 

I lunched with Professor Burrows, who lives at 9 
Northam Road, in a pretty brick house. He and Mrs. 
Burrows were very kind. He had unfortunately to 
hurry off before lunch was over, but asked me to break- 
fast to-morrow morning and to go to church afterwards. 

I met Dyer by appointment soon after. He had pro- 
cured a room for me in Balliol. Its occupant had gone 
to London "to bury a grandmother." Its back windows 
face on the Martyrs' Memorial. It is on the second 
story and the stairs are just past the Tower, on turning 
to the right after entering the gate of Balliol close to the 
Martyrs' Memorial. We visited New College Hall and 
cloisters. This name shows the antiquity of Oxford. 
New College was founded one hundred years before 
the discovery of America. We stayed for the afternoon 
services at New College Chapel and heard probably the 
best choir in Oxford sing "I waited for the Lord." 

We saw the races from University College barge. 
Then Burrows presented me to Boit, the admiral of the 
O.U.B.C., who was very cordial. I dined in Trinity 
Hall with Douglas Robinson of St. Paul's School, Con- 
cord, New Hampshire. He was a nephew of J. C. Tinne, 
captain and largest man of the Oxford four that beat 
our Harvard four in the Putney to Mortlake race in 
1869. Some of the English newspapers had tried to 
make out that the race was not close, though Oxford 
only beat Harvard by six seconds, a much closer finish 
than in the average race between Oxford and Cambridge, 
but Robinson told me that his uncle said that it was a 



268 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

very hard race to the end; that Oxford had expected 
to pass us much sooner than she did, that toward the 
end we began creeping up, and they had to row every 
ounce that was in them to keep the lead. 

Later I went to the elder Story's room and had des- 
sert, as it is called, or wine. There I met a son of Mat- 
thew Arnold, to whom I took quite a fancy. We had 
some "Derby" talk, some college stories and singing 
and piano-playing. Arnold played with much feeling 
and enthusiasm, but not in a finished style. The dining- 
hall of Trinity is very fine, with dark, old oak carving 
and paneling and a superb entrance. I returned to my 
room in Balliol, which I found ready for me, and had 
to ring at the archway as the gate was shut. 

Sunday, May 21 

Breakfasted with the Burrows family. Professor 
Burrows said that Lord Lyttelton was going too far in 
university reform. He said there were some old fellow- 
ships and special endowments which were perfectly 
useless and might well be changed, but that Lord 
Lyttelton wished to go much farther and to have, for 
example, money given for maintaining choirs used for 
new buildings or establishing new fellowships and, in 
fact, wished to be allowed to change special endow- 
ments from one purpose to another as if they were 
unrestricted funds. He said that now with the con- 
servative turn in politics he thought these plans would 
not be carried out. We went to hear the Bampton 
lecture by the Bishop of Derry. 

I had an appointment to see Edward Moss, the 
stroke and captain of the Oxford University crew, in 
his room in Brasenose after church. When I got there 
he had gone, but his friend who made the appointment 



LUNCHEON WITH THE COWLEY FATHERS 269 

said that Moss had mistaken the hour and was off hold- 
ing the "Derby" lottery for the great horse-race. To 
think that such things are going on on Sunday in quiet, 
religious Oxford and that, too, before most of the chapels 
were over ! I was out at that hour because the Bampton 
sermon began earlier than any of the others. 

I walked out to Cowley and lunched with the Fathers. 
I saw Father Benson, Father Ritchie, Charles P. 
Parker, and others. It struck me that the conversation 
was in general rather weak and that there was a good 
deal of rather trifling talk, not on higher spiritual 
things or necessary business or on literature or philoso- 
phy, but on the clergy and their personal peculiarities 
and small details of church matters. In fact, there was 
a great deal of "shop" talk. In a conversation about 
the thirty-nine articles, it turned out that one or two 
who were at least deacons had rather vague notions 
about what was necessary to believe; whether it was 
not enough to have believed their general spirit or most 
of them; and yet these were men who had testified to 
their belief in these articles. Father Benson and Charles 
Parker were rather more serious and refrained from 
joining in the personalities. 

They all dined at a semi-circular table. The dining- 
room walls were bare and the Brethren sat on wooden 
benches. After grace and during the helping, verses 
were read from the Bible by one of the acolytes. The 
dinner consisted of meat, potatoes, turnip tops, and 
rhubarb pie with heavy crust, and badly brewed beer. 
The idea of plain food was good, but this dinner was 
unwholesome, badly served, badly cooked, and the sur- 
roundings had a mediaeval want of cleanliness. A little 
of the Jewish or Mohammedan idea of water connected 
with worship would do the Brethren no harm. After 



270 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

thanksgiving for the repast we went to the chapel in 
the story above, Father Benson mounting the steps 
two at a time and yet with an air so grave and dressed 
in so long a cloak that the effect was really comical. 

We went through a service in the chapel from a spe- 
cial book, but I soon lost the place and all was confusion, 
for the reading was so mumbled that I could not follow 
what was said. A few minutes of quiet were given to all 
on our knees. When Father Benson enters a room the 
conversation stops and all rise and are evidently not at 
their ease. When they address him they are unnatural 
and become slightly confused. He is a king and not a 
brother among them. Charles Parker and I took a walk 
up one of the neighboring hills and had a superb view 
of Oxford, one that is quite noted, he told me. 

I walked back in time for the afternoon service at 
Magdalen College; pronounced here "Maudlin." The 
singing was very fine; the anthem was the "Wilderness." 
A little boy sang up to high A with soft, pleasing quality. 
I dined with Jupp, of Magdalen, at Magdalen Hall. 
Jupp has some sort of fellowship in mathematics and 
a good fellow he is too. Young Burrows introduced me 
to him. I drank beer out of an old beer mug made in 
1698. There is very little silver older than that in 
Oxford, as it was almost all used up in the revolution 
in 1649. We went to Jupp's room for dessert. It is a 
corner room, overlooking the Magdalen Bridge, and is 
in one of the towers of the college. The air was de- 
lightfully soft and balmy and all was still outside except 
for the singing of the nightingales and the soft chiming 
of distant bells. We sat a long time in the old window 
seats, talking in low tones. The captain of the Christ 
Church Cricket Club, the president of the Magdalen 
Boat Club, the cockswain of the Magdalen eight, Bur- 



STUDENT LIFE AT OXFORD 271 

rows, and myself made up the party. We listened to 
the old Tom ringing at nine o'clock. They told college 
stories, and from them I learned much of the inner life 
of Oxford, on the whole rather creditable. 

Walking home with Burrows, he began to hurry and 
said a proctor was following him and that he had not 
on a gown and cap, which were required in the evening. 
When we came to the corner of a street he bade me a 
hurried good-bye and ran rapidly off at full speed. He 
is a sprinter and a half-mile runner and doubtless got 
safely away. To have obeyed the rules he should have 
carried his cap and gown into Magdalen Chapel, which 
was not necessary for him to do in the afternoon, or else 
have gone way back to Trinity between the service 
and dinner at Magdalen. I met many students without 
caps and gowns; I should think nearly one third were 
without them, and yet if they see a proctor or "bull- 
dog" they have to run for dear life. 

Monday, May 22 

A "cold" or ordinary breakfast — that is, nothing 
brought from the buttery — with Dyer. We had, how- 
ever, toast and tea hot, and Dyer made some hot 
scrambled eggs at the open fire, and we were as cozy 
as cottagers and happy as kings. The younger Story, 
Julian (who afterwards married Emma Eames, the 
opera singer), invited me to breakfast, but I had an 
engagement at that time. The engagement was to meet 
Edward Moss at Brasenose in his room. When I arrived 
he was out. From there I went down to the boat-houses 
and had a talk with Salter about his system of letting 
boats. Fast pleasure boats were the most popular. 
Lunched with Waldo Burnett at Keble. E. M. Parker 
was there, and after lunch Viner, who is on the Keble 



272 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

boat, came in. From his account the Keble crew were 
more limited in their diet than we were in '72, '73, and 
'74; about as strict as we were in the freshman crew in 
'71. It was raining for the first time since I have been in 
Oxford this afternoon, but cleared off in time for the 
races. In the second division there was a close and 
exciting race between Trinity and Lincoln. Trinity just 
succeeded in making the bump only a few feet before 
it would have been too late, as Lincoln was close to the 
finish. 

A four-oar row down the river had been arranged for 
me. Jupp and Darbyshire, the nephew of the cele- 
brated late University stroke oar of that name, went 
with us. We left our boat under one of the long bridges 
and walked to the start of the first division. The boats 
were kept in position by long poles held by water-men 
from the shore and also by a cord held by the cockswain. 
The Oriel crew had been bumped every night for several 
nights running, and the men were thoroughly demor- 
alized. They tried to appear calm, but they were evi- 
dently very nervous. They lose their heads as soon as 
they start and have not once got through the "Gut" 
before being bumped, so that Hall, their cockswain, the 
famous one who steered the Oxford four against Har- 
vard in '69 and almost won the race for Oxford in '70 
by sheer good steering, had no chance to show his 
powers. 

Dined at Balliol Hall. After dinner Arnold, Smith, 
McMillan, and others came to Dyer's room. McMillan 
gave a rendering of "Hamlet" after the style of Irving. 
Very well done. He also acted a small piece called "The 
French Schoolmaster." It was in broken English and 
very touching. Its point lay in its human pathos and 
the fine sense of honor in the Frenchman. When it was 



THE ENGLISH CLIMATE AND EXERCISE 273 

over, H , a rather conceited fellow, assuming great 

innocence asked, "Where is the point?" His remark 
fell very flat, for it struck all as extremely rude. 

Tuesday, May 23 

I breakfasted at Christ Church with Douglas Rob- 
inson, of St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire), 
and we had Russell also who had been there, so there 
was a good deal of old school-day talk. (Douglas Rob- 
inson afterwards married Theodore Roosevelt's sister ; 
he died in 1918.) We visited the Christ Church kitchen 
and the old Tom and saw Dr. Johnson's desk at Pem- 
broke College, the Oxford gymnasium, and the Martyrs' 
Iron Cross. The gymnasium is not free. There are al- 
ways persons present to watch the exercising and con- 
trol the amount and kind of work done by each man. 
Prizes are given every year. The gymnasium is not 
generally popular. Outdoor work is preferred by most 
of the men. The English climate is wonderfully adapted 
for exercising and even forces it. Seldom is the weather 
cold enough to keep one indoors, and yet it is usually 
chilly enough to be uncomfortable if one sits still in the 
open air. 

Stopped in at Richard P. Arnold's room, which is 
directly under mine, and he played charmingly for me. 
He offered to give me a letter to a great friend of his at 
Cambridge, where I am going next. 

I lunched with Professor Burrows and went off with 
him to the Convocation. The subject of discussion that 
created the most interest was the question of removing 
the botanical gardens. It had been the idea of Dr. Ack- 
land, who unfortunately was away, to have all the scien- 
tific departments together, his reason being that science 
is a unit and ought to be studied as such. The answer 



274 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

was that the present ground was richer and better suited 
for the botanical gardens than the proposed plot. There 
was some other question of rent also, and some did not 
see why having the buildings together made the teach- 
ing any more unified. Professor Palmer, brother of Lord 
Selborne, was there and spoke very much to the point. 
Burrows told me that it was said of Professor Palmer 
that he should have been the lawyer and Lord Chan- 
cellor and that Sir Roundell Palmer, now Lord Sel- 
borne, the professor and the clergyman. The Vice- 
Chancellor of Oxford presided. All present wore gowns, 
some of them of a pattern six hundred years old. 

Two proctors were present who called "Silence" in 
a severe voice, stood when the Vice-Chancellor spoke, 
and collected the "placets" and "non-placets." Pro- 
fessor Price, the mathematician, spoke a good deal. Pro- 
fessor Smith got very excited over the idea of having 
iron spikes on the walls of the botanical gardens. He 
thought it a great cruelty. What right had they to risk 
life in that way? Suppose some one should try to climb 
over and get caught? This was brought in somewhat 
out of order and mal a propos. A hint to that effect only 
made the professor more disquieted about the spikes. 
He was restless and uneasy for the rest of the meeting. 
Dean Lightfoot is Vice-Chancellor. 

After Convocation I went through Magdalen Walk 
and Addison's Walk and then to tea at Dr. Talbot's, 
the warden of Keble College. (He was afterwards made 
Bishop of Winchester.) There I met Warden and Mrs. 
Talbot and Miss Gladstone, the daughter of the " Grand 
Old Man." Mrs. Talbot is sister of Lady Frederick 
Cavendish. It was very kind of them to ask me, for 
they were in mourning for Mrs. Talbot's father, the 
late Lord Lyttelton. I spent a very delightful hour 



ROWING 275 

there. Mrs. Talbot is very pretty, jolly, and bright. 
They spoke with regret about my father's not coming to 
England as Minister, as, in fact, almost every one does. 
Went out rowing in a four-oar tub with sliding seats. 
The president of the Magdalen Boat Club went out 
with us. They made me row stroke. I was sorry that 
I was not in better condition, for I saw that I was com- 
mitting faults which I rarely did at home, merely from 
being out of "swing" and "wind." I felt, too, that 
they were criticizing me all the way. They told me that 
if I could wait a few days more, when the races were 
over, they would get up some nice crews to row with 
me, but that now almost every good oarsman was in 
one or the other of the twenty-one college eights. I 
dined with Standish and Dyer in Standish's room. 
While on the river-bank I passed by and had pointed 
out to me the bow of this year's 'Varsity crew walking 
past. He was not quite so tall as Tucker Daland, who 
rowed port bow in the Harvard crew of '73, and not so 
squarely built. He looked like a plucky fellow. 

Wednesday, May 24 

At half -past eight I breakfasted in Dyer's room with the 
Balliol crew. They were a fine set of men, all good 
students, for no one can enter or keep in Balliol without 
being one. They were all tall and manly and had a 
healthy color in their cheeks. Their breakfast, which 
was of course a training one as the crew had one more 
day of racing, consisted of tea, dry toast, butter, bread, 
mutton chops, dropped eggs, beefsteak, plain lettuce, 
and artichokes, and they ended up with orange mar- 
malade, of which they partook an abundance. They 
said almost all the Oxford crews used it. The Balliol 
crew does not take oatmeal porridge as do most of the 



276 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

others at Oxford. I found that one of the crew had been 
in Fayal last winter and there met my dear classmate 
and old friend, Howard Lombard. They became cronies 
and mutual admirers at once. Some five of us sat on 
and talked together till half -past ten. 

Bought a set of examination papers. Dyer took me 
to the Taylorian library and gallery. In the gallery was 
a fine collection of Turner's pictures and the best in the 
world of Raphael's original drawings. There were also 
some things of Michael Angelo. I lunched with Richard 
Arnold in his rooms at Balliol. He had there two cous- 
ins, one a Mrs. Humphry Ward who played very well 
on the piano. We had some songs, too: "O, Hush 
Thee, My Babie," by Sullivan; "Softly Blow, Ye 
Breezes," by Elvy, and some of Schubert's. Many puz- 
zles were asked like this one, for example : if six cats kill 
six rats in six minutes, how many cats will it take to kill 
one hundred rats in fifty minutes? Mrs. Ward was 
also at the Talbots' yesterday. (This was six years 
before Mrs. Ward had published anything of note and 
twelve years before her famous "Robert Elsmere" came 
out. As I was revising these journals for publication 
I wrote Mrs. Ward to find whether it were she, her 
sister, or her cousin that sang the songs, and what had 
become of him. Weeks passed without any reply, and 
on March 24, 1920, I learned the reason for all the 
silence. The papers of that evening announced her 
death, after a serious illness.) 

Went to Bishop Mylne's rooms at three o'clock by 
appointment. The Bishop looked tired and thin; not, 
I fear, in a state of vigor to begin life in an unhealthy 
climate. He had just been appointed Bishop to Bom- 
bay. He was one of our clergymen of the Advent Church 
in Boston, a wholesome-minded, devout, and delight- 



BISHOP MYLNE 277 

ful man and a convincing and inspiring preacher. He 
took me over the chapel of Keble, at which college he 
was staying. A representation of Christ above the 
chancel with a huge sword proceeding out of his mouth, 
intended to represent the sword of the Spirit, did not 
seem to me in good taste. It was absurdly realistic. It 
gives cause for ridicule rather than devotion. The 
mosaics were superb. There was, however, very little 
harmony, taking them all together, and so numerous 
were the little designs, mostly good in themselves, and 
so closely were they put together that there was no 
general impression whatsoever, as in some of the har- 
monies of mosaics, for example, in the cathedral at 
Palermo. The shape of the building did not seem to me 
good either; it was that of a tall, rectangular barn. 

I walked down High Street with Bishop Mylne at 
racing speed. He has so much to do that he walks 
ventre a terre all the time. He was on his way to see a 
student from Keble who is dangerously ill. Bishop 
Mylne told me that he made use of every moment when 
awake; for example, he sometimes coaches the crews, 
having been a celebrated oarsman in his college eight, 
and while waiting for the crew at the college barge 
he would write letters. He seems more American in 
this "hurry up" than English. He may have been 
touched by "the whip of the sky" while in our Boston. 

Went to the Bodleian Library and Divinity Hall. It 
rained intermittently in torrents for about two hours. 
I saw the medal won by Hampden, with the following 
lines on it: 

"Against my King I do not fight, 
But for my King and Kingdom's right." 

What a splendid sentiment! 



278 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

I also saw the first Latin and first English Bibles ever 
printed, the manuscript of Burns's "To a Louse," an au- 
tograph of Archbishop Laud, Laud's resignation of the 
chancellorship written from the Tower, letters of Hen- 
rietta Maria to Charles I before their marriage, and the 
lantern found in Guy Fawkes's hand when trying to blow 
up Parliament. These were perhaps the most striking 
things I noticed among hundreds of others. 

They told me the story of the last librarian who had 
made a new catalogue, complete for every book but the 
one nearest him, which he was sitting on all the time. 

Law enforcement here is peculiar. In case a student 
at Oxford gets into any legal difficulty, instead of being 
tried in a police or public court, he is tried in a room at 
the entrance of the Convocation Hall before the Vice- 
Chancellor of the University. 

I dined with William Henry Russell, of Oriel, a 
former St. Paul's School boy, as I have already stated, 
in his room. He lives out of college, which is rather ex- 
ceptional. He explained to me the system of living out. 
Students can only live out in those houses licensed by 
the authorities of the University. The owner of the 
house has to lock his outside door before ten o'clock and 
keep an accurate list of the number of times a boarder 
comes in after ten and the exact hour he returns. In 
case the owner omits to do this, his license is taken away. 
Any successful collusion between the houseowner and 
students is almost impossible, as students are occasion- 
ally watched by proctors, and then, too, a man's name 
is often taken down when leaving a room not his own 
after ten o'clock and if there is not a corresponding 
entry at his lodging the omission is quickly discovered. 

Met again Douglas Robinson. 



BREAKFAST AT KEBLE 279 

Thursday, May 25 

I went to the early communion service at Keble at 
seven and a half and after that breakfasted with Bishop 
Mylne and the warden, professors, and tutors of Keble. 
Father Benson came in late. I came in with Bishop 
Mylne and he wished me to sit next the warden in the 
seat of honor. I protested and the warden very rightly 
did not allow it, but made the Bishop, who is now no 
longer directly connected with the college and is in the 
position of a guest, take it himself. After breakfast 
I went to see Canon Bright whom I have missed so far, 
and who had asked me to breakfast with him to-day, 
hoping to see him, but the servant told me he had just 
gone out to service. I then started back to Keble to 
hear Bishop Mylne preach his last sermon at Oxford 
before leaving for Bombay. He had especially asked me 
to come and hear him. On the way I met the Chan- 
cellor preceded by three squire beadles dressed in red 
and carrying enormous maces, marching along with 
a great deal of the pomp of this wicked world. Two 
students, half dressed, as he was walking by, put their 
heads out of their bedroom windows and said: "Hollo, 
this must be some saint's day." It was, in fact, As- 
cension Day. 

At Keble I found the chapel door locked and a service 
going on inside. I made several attempts to open the 
door, causing sufficient noise to attract the attention 
of the door-keeper. I made three trials, each a little 
louder than the other. I should much have preferred 
to give up the task, but I wished my friend to know that 
I had cared to come and hear him. After the third at- 
tempt, with a slight shake of the door, I heard several 
feet advancing from inside and the door being un- 
fastened. Then, when I was let in, I found that two 



£80 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

proctors in full costume had descended from their seats 
and were looking very anxious as if they expected to 
hear that the building was on fire or that some one was 
leaving this life. Nor was that all. There were at least 
thirty pairs of eyes looking at me. I thanked the 
proctors, made them a bow, walked by and took my 
seat in as quiet, dignified, and matter-of-fact way as 
I could. I noticed that as they shut the doors the least 
sound reverberated along the stone mosaic floor and 
walls of the chapel, whose main fault as a chapel was 
its too abundant echoes. So I had the pleasant assur- 
ance that every one in the building had heard my gentle 
"tapping at the door." All the students wore white 
surplices during service. The sermon was good, both 
earnest and intellectual. 

Lunched with Dicey. We visited the Ashmolean 
Museum, where I saw, among other things, the jewel 
which is authentically the one worn by Alfred the 
Great in his crown. We saw also the sword given by 
Pope Leo X to Henry VIII as "Defender of the Faith." 

Rowed down the river in a four-oar through Iffley 
Lock, as far as the Swan Inn, if I recollect the name 
aright, where we got out and pitched quoits. The great 
jumper Glazebrook rowed with us. Two years ago he 
made the highest amateur running jump on record. 
His jump has recently been beaten by another Oxford 
man named Brooks, who broke professional records 
and all, jumping in a match six feet, two and one half 
inches. Glazebrook gave me some useful hints about 
running jumping. 

In the evening dined in Balliol Hall with Dyer and 
later went to the Balliol eight wine, that is, a jollifica- 
tion given in honor of the Balliol crew, which had made 
three bumps this year and holds a good place on the 



THE BALLIOL EIGHT WINE 281 

river, so there was a lot of enthusiasm and the place 
crowded. The college authorities gave up one of the 
reception or lecture halls for it. Every member of the 
crew, cockswain included, was toasted separately. The 
toasts were drunk mostly in champagne. The answers 
to the toasts were not particularly bright and witty, 
but were manly, good-natured, and modest. They had 
no little singing, usually calling for a song as well as 
a speech, and all joined in after each toast with the 
refrain " For He is a Jolly Good Fellow." They took 
me in as one of themselves and called on me for a Har- 
vard song. They knew I was a Harvard 'Varsity stroke 
oar and captain and had followed their crews every day 
I had rooms in Balliol. I was puzzled for a moment 
what to choose. "Fair Harvard" is dull, and most of 
those we used to sing were more distinctive of negro 
minstrels than of Harvard. At last I bethought me 
of "The Lone Fish Ball," which was generously ap- 
plauded. As an encore I gave "Louisiana Lowlands," 
which did not take as well. They then toasted the 
United States and asked me to respond. I said in gen- 
eral that it is now the centennial of the disturbance 
between the two countries, but that such kindness as I 
had received here at Oxford, and indeed all over Eng- 
land, and from them in particular, was of a kind, if 
extended to others also, to make firm friends of the 
two nations, which have a common language, common 
literature, common laws, common customs and liber- 
ties, and a high sense of national character and re- 
sponsibility. What these two might do as co-workers 
for the peace and well-being of the rest of the world 
was almost incalculable. These few words apparently 
pleased them, as they were followed up with "For He 
is a Jolly Good Fellow." Was this not "just awfully 



282 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

nice" of them? They had the good sense to break up 
the meeting before things began to drag. There was 
a good deal of drinking, but no one seemed more af- 
fected than to be slightly talkative. There was, how- 
ever, more drinking afterwards in some of the private 
rooms. (As I look over my notes and cards received 
at Oxford, I see I have had more invitations and calls 
from faculty and students than I have mentioned. They 
simply showered me with acts of kindness.) 

I had long known of the Oxford-Cambridge system of 
examinations and the better feeling and greater friend- 
liness that is supposed to exist on that account between 
the students and the faculty. 

With us in America the instructor is the examiner. 
He is the man who may cut off the student from his 
degree, condition him, or lose him a high mark. In 
an English university, on the other hand, examina- 
tions are set by committees of the university while the 
college instructor, be he tutor or professor, is the 
friend of the student who is helping him to pass an ex- 
amination set by others. With us to be on familiar 
terms with the instructor is supposed by fellow-students 
to be bidding for lenient marks and not to be good form. 
How is it in Oxford? I find all the restraint is removed 
and all I had been told is true as to the good relations 
and helpful, stimulating intimacy between teacher and 
taught, and those Oxford men who had previously been 
at Harvard, and whom I met, believed that the dif- 
ference is due almost wholly to the system of exam- 
inations. 

I cannot close the account of my delightful visit at 
Oxford without speaking of the easy hospitality, manli- 
ness, freedom from care, even happy-go-lucky character 
of the men. They were much more blithe, jovial, and 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CAMBRIDGE 283 

lightly merry than our Harvard students, who take 
both play and pleasure more seriously. The Oxford 
men, too, bore defeat good-naturedly. Oxford on a 
bright day in May during the bumping races, with all 
the young lady visitors and its spring verdure, is at its 
best. The hawthorns, both red and white, the chestnut- 
trees in bloom, the lilacs, and a profusion of flowers 
and flowering shrubs, the silken lawns, the many 
meadows, the winding blue river, the gray or red spires 
or towers seen through masses of dense foliage, and the 
odor of new-mown grass, and sweet flowers, formed the 
setting of these days for the triumph of youth and 
beauty and simple pleasure "almost unalloyed." 

Friday, May 26 

In the morning I left for a visit at Cambridge Univer- 
sity by way of London, having had a most satisfactory, 
instructive, and delightful visit at Oxford. I felt almost 
as if I had been a student there. They certainly made 
me seem like one of themselves in all social and friendly 
relations. At Cambridge all the hotels were chock full, 
as it was the evening of the grand ball. I had made no 
arrangements in advance, so could not go. They gave 
me rooms outside and I took my meals at the hotel. 
Delivered my letters and on coming back from a stroll 
I found an invitation to breakfast with Herbert Leaf, 
the friend of Richard Arnold. 

Cambridge does certainly seem dull and plain after 
Oxford. The young men appear a little less well-bred. 
I saw a number sitting on a fence and scrutinizing some 
young ladies passing by, a thing which I never saw 
either at Oxford or Harvard, though it is a common 
enough practice at a certain other New England college. 



284 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Saturday, May 27 

Bkeakfasted with Leaf at Trinity. I met there three 
or four very charming fellows, among others William 
Bradford, of New Orleans, a recent graduate, and 
Francis H. Mellor. During this breakfast Leaf and 
Bradford kindly put me in the way of seeing pretty 
much all that was going on. We adjourned to Brad- 
ford's room where I met Francis Peabody, of Salem, 
Massachusetts, who is also a student at Trinity. He 
and Bradford both rowed in the first Trinity eight in 
the recent bumping races and their crew stood second 
on the river. Peabody was on the winning " trial eight " 
and missed a seat on the University crew on account of 
a temporary illness. Bradford took me to see a cricket 
match between the Cambridge eleven and the Surrey 
Clubr The match was rather uninteresting as Cam- 
bridge had it pretty much all its own way. Leaf was 
batting part of the time I was there. The fielding of the 
Surrey Club was bad enough to rank them third rate 
in basebalL The batting and bowling, however, were 
good. 

There was a running-track made of rolled ashes round 
the cricket ground. This was a new idea. We passed 
the racket-court, skating-rink, dissecting-rooms, and 
physical and chemical laboratories on our way back. 
Lunched with Bradford and then we went rowing to- 
gether in a pair-oar tub down to the first lock, Baits- 
bite's. Lovely day, and a good time. 

The boat-houses in Cambridge are more like ours at 
Harvard, built of wood or stone and on the river-bank. 
They are all, but that of the first Trinity, very plain, 
ugly buildings and there are no pretty trees nor shrubs 
by the river, nor barges as at Oxford. Many of the toilet 
and sewage arrangements in these beautiful colleges 



ENGLISH WAGES 285 

are of a strictly mediaeval character. The river is not 
fit for swimming, and woe to both bright blazers and 
white trousers in case of an upset. Took a drive with 
Bradford and Peabody in a cab to Girton and back, 
leaving Peabody to return later. I saw the new build- 
ings for the young ladies' college there. I dined with 
Bradford at Trinity, who has been quite devoted to me. 
Bless his heart, for he is a dear, kind, warm-hearted 
Southerner! The guests were Gibbs, whose father is 
governor of the Bank of England, Lehmann, Penrose, 
and Gridley, an Eton fellow. Peabody dropped in 
later — a jolly crowd and a jolly time! 

Sunday, May 28 

Breakfasted late with Frank Peabody, where I met a 
number of men, Haddon, Lehmann, Penrose, Alexander, 
Corbatt, Jameson, and Rodwald, all bright, cheerful, 
and hospitable. In the middle of the day dined with 
Mr. A. Marshall, a professor at St. John's College. I 
had a letter to him from President Eliot. Dined at 
the dons' table in high style on a dais and had some 
rare old wine for which their cellar is noted. Some of 
the dons were agreeable and many no doubt very 
learned, but they did not converse particularly well 
and some of them certainly were not refined in their 
table manners. We adjourned to the Convocation 
room for coffee. 

I got Mr. Marshall talking on the labor question, 
which he has particularly studied in the United States. 
He said that after most careful examination he did 
not find that our laborers were paid much, if any, more 
than the English, when one deducts the difference be- 
tween paper, in which the Americans are paid, and gold, 
which the Englishman gets, and also the difference in 



286 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

the cost of living. That is, based on real wages, there 
was but very little difference. It seemed rather a star- 
tling statement. He made most of his studies two years 
ago before the cost of labor had declined very much 
and he seems to have worked diligently and impar- 
tially. 

We went to afternoon chapel. All the students of this 
college, St. John's, have to attend service twice a day 
and wear surplices. The anthem, "Who is the King 
of Glory?" by Handel, was superbly sung. Quite thrill- 
ing. 

I dined with Mellor, son of Justice Sir John Mellor, 
in the hall of Trinity College. The hall is the best in 
Cambridge and better than any I saw at Oxford. I went 
to his room afterwards and about nine we adjourned 
to the room of Professor Gibbons, who was musical. 
There we had lots of singing and playing, all of the most 
classical style. There I met Mr. Rawlins, to whom Mr. 
James Russell Lowell gave me a letter and who was so 
kind to me last summer on many occasions. Mellor 
took me to walk through "the Backs" and along 
Fortification Walk to hear the nightingales sing. We 
heard but one, which sang but for a few moments. That 
song, however, was delicious, only tantalizing, as it 
stopped so soon. Fortunately, I had heard some of 
these noted birds early this morning about four or 
five o'clock, and also at Oxford. "The Backs" are to 
me one of the most beautiful things in Cambridge and 
quite superior to any one thing in Oxford. As everybody 
knows, it is a river that goes on the back side of some of 
the handsomest of the colleges with steep, wooded, and 
bushy banks and lovely walks that invite one to sit 
and stroll and muse, while the odor of flowers, the bril- 
liant coloring from the deep, almost black greens to the 



SEEING CAMBRIDGE 287 

bright red and white flowering shrubs and the emerald 
green grass, give altogether something which I have 
never seen anywhere else. 

Monday, May 29 

Breakfasted with Bradford and then met Mitchell, 
number five of the winning 'Varsity of this year. He 
is unusually bright and would be a fine scholar as well 
as rowing man with a little more application, I am told. 
I was rather disappointed in not finding the 'Varsity 
oarsmen larger men. Mitchell, who is quite a noted 
oar, is no taller than I and no broader, though perhaps 
a little thicker-set, and not nearly as large and strong as 
either Bacon or Goodwin, to say nothing of Taylor on 
the Harvard crew in 1874, which was the heaviest on 
which I rowed. Indeed, I was the next to the lightest 
man on the University that year. After breakfast we 
visited the Corpus Christi College court with its notedly 
thick ivy, St. Peter's or Peterhouse Chapel, the oldest 
college in Cambridge, with its very fine stained-glass 
windows of the modern school, though for my part I 
rather like the ancient better, and the Fitzwilliam 
Museum all in the Grecian style, with its gorgeous 
marble hall and fine collection of Turner's pictures and 
casts from the best statuary in the world. The museum 
is open to the public on Wednesday and slippers are 
kept on hand for the rustics to wear so they will not 
injure the finely polished stone mosaic floors with their 
hobnails. 

Went over the Cavendish chemical and physical 
laboratory, named after the Duke of Devonshire who 
has endowed it handsomely. Mr. Garnett, to whom 
Mr. Marshall gave me a note, took me over. All the 
nails and other work usually of iron were made of copper 



288 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

near the magnetic and electric departments and every 
room is furnished with stands for tables entirely inde- 
pendent of the floors. The supports for these stands 
rest on solid beams running directly up from the 
foundations. In this way, walking about the building 
does not disturb the most careful and delicate experi- 
ment. Much of the apparatus has not yet arrived, but 
all that has is of the very highest order. 

Lunched with my classmate William T. Piper, of Har- 
vard, who is taking post-graduate work at this English 
university, and there met Frank Peabody again and a 
Mr. Thornton, a son of the English Minister to Amer- 
ica, Sir Edward Thornton. Peabody told me he is going 
to practice law in America, probably in Boston. 

I went to the Pitt Club at two-thirty and down the 
river at four. The Pitt Club is not political and is not 
an eating or drinking club, but intended simply to fur- 
nish a place to write and read that is more select than 
the Union, which latter is virtually open to all who wish 
to belong. 

On the river I rowed in a four-oar with Close, an 
old 'Varsity oar who coached this year's successful crew 
on the Thames. He stroked our boat. Penrose, stroke 
of Trinity, was behind him, and Bradford behind me. 
Penrose and Close are on the four-oar going to Phila- 
delphia from Trinity College for the great regatta at 
the Centennial Exhibition. Their stroke is somewhat 
longer than that rowed at Oxford, just the reverse of 
the state of affairs a few years ago. They do not snatch 
so quickly from the water, which is becoming a great 
fault at Oxford. It is very well to correct that fault, but 
I think the Cambridge men are overdoing the correction, 
reaching too far forward and going too far back. It is 
proved to absolute demonstration, that going back be- 



DINNER WITH R. C. LEHMANN 289 

yond a certain point is wasted motion, requiring great 
effort in the recovery. The Trinity pair-oars were out 
practicing for the championship of the college. Trinity 
has six hundred undergraduate members in all, so its 
races are quite good. They got coaching all the way. 
Had a good shower bath after our row. 

The Trinity boat-house has hand basins and shower 
baths, two large dressing-rooms and a reading-room, 
but no lockers, strange to say. I dined with R. C. Leh- 
mann, of Trinity, who has very handsome rooms, with 
rich, old furniture, dark hangings, and all in good taste. 
The dinner was rather too elaborate, I thought, for 
college. It was a regular London one, with all its courses, 
servants, wines, flowers, and fruits. Sturgis, son of 
Russell Sturgis, of London, Frank Peabody, Foster 
(who afterward married Lehmann's sister), Ward, Gibbs, 
Denman, Bradford, Grey, Cole, and three or four others 
were there. I sang some songs to the guitar. They par- 
ticularly liked "Louisiana Lowlands" and made me 
repeat it in Sturgis's room, where we adjourned for tea, 
and delicious tea it was too! J. P. Penrose came in 
later and sang a good deal. He has a fine voice and sang 
with sentiment. He is very popular and being Irish 
takes his popularity well. During the singing a proc- 
tor's servant appeared and handed Sturgis a printed 
notice as to the rules of the music hours, it being then 
past the time allowed. The fellows did not mind it at 
all. I left soon, for fear they were keeping it up on 
my account. Grey is six feet seven inches tall and is 
the best pianist and organist in Cambridge. (Rudolph 
Chambers Lehmann, who gave the dinner, was after- 
wards an editor of London "Punch," of the "Daily 
News," a member of Parliament, and for two years 
coach of the Harvard University crew. Though he 



290 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

failed to win a race for Harvard against Yale, he did 
much to improve the good feeling and to better the ath- 
letic relations between those two colleges.) 

Tuesday, May 30 

Breakfasted with Bradford, who had a "chap" there 
named James Bradford Mann, who is on the Phila- 
delphia four, and I went to several of the colleges and 
then to King's Chapel and up on the roof. The view 
from there was perhaps the most thoroughly English 
that I have yet seen. The roundness and fullness of the 
trees, the brightness of the grass, the narrow, winding 
river, the rolling country with hedgerows by the roads, 
gave an impression of softness and peace not found in 
Italy, France, Egypt, Greece, or New England. The 
chapel itself was grand and the arches upon arches of 
the stone roof up so high and affording each other com- 
mon support excited wonder, surprise, and admiration. 
It seemed to draw the spirit upward and should, if 
architecture could do so, raise one above everything 
that is sordid and low. 

I lunched with Professor Henry Sidgwick. His wife is 
a bluestocking, really a great mathematician. She is 
generally quiet, is pale, very agreeable in conversation 
when she talks, and extremely ladylike in her manners. 
I wonder whether her genius interferes with her house- 
keeping? (She was made principal of Newnham College 
in 1892. Her brother is the Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, who 
in 1876 was but beginning his parliamentary career.) 

I went to the rooms of a fellow of King's whom I met 
at lunch and strolled down with him to the boats. I meas- 
ured some of the fittings of the eights used in the last 
races. They were not well placed. Many of the row- 
locks were too high and too near the seats, measured 



THE TRINITY PAIR-OAR RACES £91 

horizontally and to the middle of the boat. This was 
not only my individual opinion, as different from our 
measurements at Harvard, but they were different from 
those of the Cambridge University crew. I went down 
as cockswain to a pair-oar tub, with the remaining two of 
the Trinity four that is going to America. They were 
not large fellows, only one of the four is taller than I. 
Penrose, Close, and I did running high jumps for beers. 
Close beat me and I beat Penrose. They said I really 
jumped higher than Close, but did not know how to 
get over the bar in the right way. Perhaps that was 
just their manner of being pleasant, but very likely they 
were right as I had never had any coaching for high 
jumping. 

To-day they rowed the Trinity pair-oar races. Frank 
Peabody and his partner, Mann, easily won against 
Lehmann and Hicks. The river was too narrow for even 
two boats to row abreast, so the boats went in a straight 
line, the second pair enough behind not to be affected 
by the wash of the first. They were started by the firing 
of a pistol. They rowed to stakes up the river placed 
at a distance apart exactly equal to that between the 
boats at starting. A man was placed at each stake with 
a loaded pistol and fired it off as soon as the boat passed 
which was to finish at his stake, and the first pistol that 
went off showed which boat had won. Stop-watches 
were also carried by men running or on horseback along- 
side of each boat, and so the time was kept. A profes- 
sional water-man ran beside each boat and gave the 
bow directions for steering during the race. The pair- 
oars are now rowed without cockswains and are steered 
by rudders worked by the bow oar, with an arrange- 
ment by which his feet can regulate long copper tiller 
wires. Left for London directly after dinner. 



292 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Dined again with Bradford, where I met Penrose, 
Peabody, Jameson, Riston, and Mann, another of the 
so-called " American " or "Philadelphia" four. I gave 
them an idea of the heat in Philadelphia and told them 
of some differences in our diet and training for our sum- 
mer climate. Altogether we had another cozy, charming 
party and no mosquitoes, though the weather was warm. 
The longer I have stayed in Cambridge the more I ap- 
preciate some of its special features. The Cavendish 
laboratories are the beginning of scientific education in 
the big English universities. There is none at present 
at Oxford and it is only just starting at Cambridge. 
"The Backs" here are more beautiful than any one 
thing at Oxford. Trinity Hall is finer than any one hall 
at Oxford, and one chapel here is perhaps superior also; 
yet, on the whole, Oxford far surpasses Cambridge in 
general beauty and dignity. The wonderful bright- 
colored coats worn by the men of the crews and cricket 
elevens, which they call "blazers," are most striking. 
They seem to an American as too vivid in color, with 
wonderful contrasts in the way of stripes. I bought as a 
souvenir the dark blue coat, white trousers, and scarf 
at Oxford worn by the University crew men. 

The habit at Oxford and Cambridge of breakfasting 
in each other's rooms instead of in hall and the dining 
in hall instead of at small dining-clubs, as is so much the 
fashion among the well-to-do at Harvard, tends to a 
great deal of sociability and perhaps has much to do 
with the freedom of hospitality which is so remarkable 
in English society; that is, hospitality among them- 
selves and to any one who is properly introduced. At 
Cambridge the bumping races were over. They had had 
their great ball and the young ladies had mostly gone 
when I arrived, and the men were settling down in 



UNIVERSITY HOSPITALITY 293 

preparation for future examinations and the long va- 
cation, and I did not have the advantage of living in 
one of the colleges as at Oxford, nor did I have as many- 
letters of introduction. Still, my time was very agree- 
ably filled and I saw the University to better advantage 
than do most strangers. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
FIRST OF LONDON REVISITED 

Wednesday, May 31 

To-day went to see the great Derby horse-race. I 
started off from the corner of Regent Street and Picca- 
dilly on the top of a four-horse drag which my friend 
J. Horsfall had engaged. In the party were some ten 
German friends of his and all were bound in a merry 
mood for the Derby races. We had an experienced 
driver, good and even handsome horses, a manservant, 
and plenty of lunch inside the coach. Before we had 
got fairly out of London and about ten o'clock in the 
forenoon the roads toward Epsom were well filled with 
carriages and foot passengers, all tending one way. 
Every sort of trap was put into use — small donkey 
carts, vegetable wagons, tip-carts, express wagons, omni- 
buses, hansom cabs, and in fact everything from a pair 
of bare feet up to a landau with four horses. 

The day was not particularly hot, yet people were 
constantly quenching their thirst with beer at every inn 
and hotel on the roadside. All along we saw negro min- 
strels, some of them of the rudest sort, generally three 
men with a banjo, a set of bones, and a tambourine. 
Sometimes the company would consist of but one man 
who would sing, make faces, tell stories, pass round the 
hat, and say "Thank you, Sar," to those who put 
nothing in. Before we got a quarter of the way, we saw 
some parties who had unhitched their horses and had 
already begun their lunch. I wondered if they ever saw 
the race-course even from a distance that day. There 
were parties, no nearer their destination, who were over- 



THE DERBY CROWD 295 

come with the "fresh air and sandwiches" and had gone 
to sleep under a hedge or in some cases right out on the 
roadside. There seemed to be an innumerable supply 
of policemen all along the road. There were always one 
or two in sight. Large numbers of pea-shooters were 
sold along the way, so that one's eyes were in jeopardy 
both going and coming. They also sold what seemed 
to me the most stupid contrivance for squirting water. 
It was nothing but a painter's tube for oil paints filled 
with water instead of colors. While they were about it 
they might have got something which would squirt 
water better and not be used up in one second. How- 
ever, these were uncomfortable and annoying enough 
as it was, so we had reason to be thankful that they were 
not more effective. After we left the limits of London 
the road was no longer watered and the air was ex- 
tremely dusty. 

About twelve o'clock we arrived at the race-course, 
had the coach driven into the two-guinea enclosure, and 
got close to the line right opposite the grandstand, so 
that we had the best place possible. Driving down our 
driver spared his horses at the beginning, many a trap 
passing us. Before our fine animals got tired or hot he 
watered them a little, occasionally stopping for a mo- 
ment; but before we arrived at the race-course we had 
passed everything that had gone by us and a good many 
more that had started ahead of us, and our horses were 
fresh and brisk. 

Once established in the enclosure we got off the drag 
and walked about. The crowd was nowhere very dense, 
being spread over a large area. It was a rough, dirty, 
and boisterous set. There were wild Indians painted in 
all sorts of colors, with rows of feathers on their hats, 
who did second-rate feats of strength and agility; there 



296 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

were hand organs with monkeys; negro minstrel troops 
of all sizes and qualities; there were Scottish bagpipes 
and Scotch dancing-girls; there were acrobats and jug- 
glers and whole families of "phenomena," and each set 
collected a crowd about itself, the crowd sometimes 
more interesting than the performers. There were 
quantities of betters or book-makers with their assist- 
ants, their stands, and their strange costumes. One 
pair, for example, wore tall white hats, blue cravats, and 
long checked overcoats coming down to their feet; 
another couple were dressed in long white cloaks, with 
large red crosses, looking, with their backs turned, like 
Catholic priests at high mass. They all had some pe- 
culiar costume, and, what is strange, there was not a 
single face among some two hundred or more of these 
book-makers or professional betters that I saw, who 
did not look as calm, sober, gentle, and honest as could 
be; in fact, seen in another costume and another place 
they would pass for quiet, country Methodist parsons. 
Until the race-horses appeared just before the great race 
itself, the betting was carried on most quietly. Only as 
the horses started did it become noisy. 

The chief amusement of the crowd, while waiting, 
seemed to be, above all, the game of Aunt Sally, which 
has now somewhat improved. Instead of uselessly 
knocking the pipe out of the mouth of a figure dressed 
to represent Aunt Sally, they threw clubs at cocoanuts 
placed on sticks about four feet high and six feet apart. 
If a cocoanut was hit, it belonged to the lucky shooter. 
Hitting the support and so knocking down the nut did 
not count. A halfpenny or a farthing a throw was the 
price. It seemed very easy to hit these cocoanuts, so 
every one tried, but in reality it was hard and so those 
running these games made no little profit. 



THE GREAT RACE 297 

Several races of more or less interest came off, all on 
time, and then we had lunch with champagne, various 
kinds of sandwiches, cold chicken, pate defoie gras, and 
what not. During lunch crowds of dirty ragamuffins 
crawled under the carriage to get what was thrown away. 
Every now and then we would be called on to "sit still 
for a moment" and the next minute a man would ap- 
pear with a tintype of the coach and party. We had 
twenty of these taken of us. 

At last the bell rang for the great race of the day. 
The track was cleared and out came the horses and 
riders, going slowly up the course, and then faster back 
to the start, to "get up the blood." We had not long 
to wait before we heard from the other side a roar of 
shouting and could indistinctly make out, round the 
corner to our right and over the heads of the standing 
crowds, some bright colors, yellow, red, and blue, flash- 
ing past. Then we saw the horses turn Tattenham Cor- 
ner and come straight for us. We were unable, till they 
got nearly opposite, to tell which was ahead. All about 
us the excitement was intense. One could feel it in the air. 
I took the opportunity to glance at the grandstand op- 
posite and the crowd below. Every hat was off, every 
neck strained, and every head turned in the same di- 
rection. It was a sea of faces and eyes. In a moment 
the horses were in front of us and then past, first one 
and then another having the lead, but the favorite 
hopelessly behind. The great event of the day was over. 
A good view of the race, for about eight seconds at most 
and much less for many, had brought that great crowd 
of hundreds of thousands out of London and from all 
parts of England. There followed soon after an unim- 
portant race, the last one of the day, and then all 
started for home. 



298 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Such confusion and such noise, dust, dirt, and row! 
Lunch was strewed about, horses were frisking, and a 
good half the drivers were more or less drunk. Our 
driver, fortunately, was in good condition. The road 
was so crowded that we hardly went off a walk for 
about five miles and we had frequent blocks when the 
whole procession came to a standstill. The scenes along 
the road were discouraging enough for any one who be- 
lieves in the essential good of human nature and would 
quickly put to rout any theory of the self -development 
and improvement of unassisted, unrestrained, free 
human action. The amount of drunkenness was be- 
yond belief. Dignified and quiet-looking old men would 
be drinking to the health of passers-by; young men 
would be drinking out of the bottles. The pea-shooters 
were livelier than ever, and before we got home small 
stones were used in place of peas. Water, and even beer, 
was thrown from one carriage to another, and so were 
little bags of some white powder, which would break on 
hitting one's clothes and make one look like a miller. A 
party of young men in a handsome barouche began to 
amuse themselves by shooting peas at an old woman 
by the roadside. She took up stones, and on their 
continuing, she let fly right into the carriage, and why 
the sharp-cornered stones used for macadamizing the 
road did not break any skulls, none of us could tell. 
They very much damaged the varnish on the handsome 
equipage. Our coachman got ahead by taking a side 
road, and, having used the horses well, they were fresh, 
and once out of the thickest of the crowd we passed 
everything and got back to our rendezvous at about 
half -past ten in the evening, all having had "a very 
nice time, thank you." One of our own party was over- 
come from imbibing too much and had to be put below. 



AMERICAN POLITICS 299 

Another, who was in pretty bad condition, made friends 
with a street-walker along the side of the road and in- 
sisted upon her getting up on the coach and sitting be- 
side him. I felt thoroughly ashamed of my company 
and only trusted I was not recognized by any of my 
good English friends. Altogether it was about as dis- 
gusting and discouraging an experience as I have ever 
had. 

Thursday, June 1 

Dined with John Westlake, Esquire, Queen's Coun- 
sel, and Doctor of Civil Laws at Oxford. (Later was 
made Professor of International Law at Cambridge 
and a judge of the Hague Court of International Ar- 
bitration.) There I met several barristers. A good deal 
of friendly interest in American politics was developed. 
I explained the bad influences of the present civil service 
and patronage system and how, through it, we created 
political machines which manipulate the caucuses, 
primaries, and conventions in favor of those who put 
them in office, so that no longer does our Government 
represent the wishes of the people, but rather the wishes 
of a ring of unscrupulous politicians, the office-holders 
working for the "ins" and those wanting their places 
working night and day for the "outs." We go through 
the form of voting, as the Roman citizens so long did 
under the Empire for their consuls, but, just as they 
voted for candidates named by the Emperor, so we 
vote only for those whom the political party machines 
nominate. 

The Royal Titles Bill passed in April and the declara- 
tion of Queen Victoria as Empress of India a month 
ago came up for discussion. The usual reason given for 
the change of title was to impress the inhabitants of 



300 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

India, where "empress" seemed a higher title than 
" queen." Whether it would not at the same time settle 
any question of precedence in England itself as between 
a royal and an imperial princess was considered as at 
least a probable consequence of, if not a motive for, 
the change. 

Friday, June 2 

Called on Mr. Rawlins at Lincoln's Inn, New Court. 
I find that many of the British barristers have a way of 
looking at the law, not as a system intended to bring 
about the best justice possible and to be developed for 
that purpose, but merely as a bundle of traditions with 
no concern as to the reason for their existence other 
than that they are what they are. That is a very con- 
venient state of mind for an active, practicing young 
barrister, but I am inclined to think that only those men 
will become great as judges or leading lawyers in the 
realm who are seeking to develop a wise and helpful 
jurisprudence fitted to the needs of the people. 

Spent the afternoon in the South Kensington Mu- 
seum, mostly in examining the scientific apparatus. 
There was so much to see that one had to choose be- 
tween merely looking over everything just to get an 
idea of the size and variety of the whole or else to exam- 
ine a small part carefully. 

I dined with Mr. Albert Rutson at the Devonshire 
Club. Mr. Rutson had taken the trouble to look me up, 
saying that my father had been kind to him when he 
was in Boston during his travels in the "States." He is 
not well. At the dinner were Mr. Charles Parker, Pro- 
fessor Gurney, somebody named Rice from India, and 
others. After dinner I went to hear Albani sing in "I 
Puritani." I was delighted with Albani's voice, charm 



A TROUBLESOME CABMAN 301 

of manner, and good looks. The cabman who drove me 
home was somewhat drunk and demanded extra pay, 
telling me when halfway home that he would not go on 
without this extra amount. I told him to go ahead or I 
should call a policeman. When at the door of my lodg- 
ings he insisted on extra money. I gave him the full 
fare and a little more for pourboire and then unlocked 
the door and walked in. He followed me into the house, 
slipping past the door before I could shut it. I then, as 
they say in law, posui manus molliter, and ejected him 
from the house. I had the suspicion from hearing a 
heavy thud that he fell on the sidewalk, but in a mo- 
ment he was up again, banging and knocking on the 
door and threatening all sorts of things. However, 
having a clear conscience and knowing I had a right to 
defend my castle, and that I had used no unnecessary 
force under the circumstances, I quietly went to bed and 
to sleep. 

Saturday, June 3 

Lunched in Piccadilly on pickled salmon, bread and 
butter, and a half a pint of stout for Is. 4>d.; a pretty 
cheap lunch and not bad. I visited the British Museum, 
where I saw the rest of Athens that Lord Elgin had 
taken away and which I had not seen in Greece, and 
a good deal also from Egypt and Syria. The Theseus 
is badly injured, but still has dignity and repose. I 
called on Professor Gurney and Mr. Westlake and 
found them out; on Signor Franceschi, who was in. I 
walked home through the park, where I saw all the 
world and some of my world, too, out driving and rid- 
ing. I dined at St. James's restaurant with music 
during the meal. They had a wonderful dinner for the 
price, namely, soup, fish, an entree, joint, pudding, 



302 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

tarts, ice cream, and fruit for 35. 6d. I spent the evening 
talking with a dear old man with fine curly gray hair, 
Mr. Jonathan Amory, of Boston, who was lodging in 
the same house with me. He gave me an interesting 
account of his meeting Louis Napoleon and Charles X. 
He was trying to perfect an invention on a smoke-con- 
suming patent of his for use in locomotives. Theoret- 
ically it is good, but whether it will work out in practice 
is another matter. 

Whit Sunday, June 4 

Went to All Saints', Margaret Street, in the afternoon. 
Read Pascal till time for dinner. I dined informally with 
Joe Horsfall and his brother. Talked over our Derby 
experiences and saw some of the sights of London. 

Monday, June 5 

Being Whit Monday all the banks and shops were shut 
and no work was done. On going up Regent Street at 
about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, I passed two well- 
dressed, rather good-looking girls, both drunk. They 
were talking very loudly, kissing and embracing each 
other. The police never put a stop to such things in 
London, day or night, unless the drunkenness gets so 
noisy as to be a breach of the peace and a public dis- 
turbance. With us in America drunkenness in public 
places is a misdemeanor and it is the duty of the police 
to arrest. I called on Mrs. Dr. Julius Pollock, whom I 
found in, and Lord Tenterden, who was out. Went to 
hear Albani, this time in "Lohengrin," and her beauti- 
ful voice grew on me the more I heard it. 

Tuesday, June 6 

Left at ten-fifty for Windsor to see Eton College on 

the day of the annual celebration. How I remember 



ETON COLLEGE 303 

June 6 as the great Eton day, when reading of the public 
schools of Great Britain in my days at St. Paul's, and 
here I now am on the very day and at the very school ! 
It rained as the train drew out, in the quiet, noiseless 
way the English railway carriages move, but it cleared 
up before arriving. At the station were a large number 
of boys to meet their friends. The small boys wore 
white vests and short black jackets, with black neck- 
ties and turnover collars. The older ones wore long 
surtouts, with black vests and white neckties. They all, 
young and old, wore the tall silk hats of the Eton lads, 
which Were to-day well brushed and new, and most of 
the boys had flowers in their button-holes. I met a 
Mr. Rawlins, one of the masters at Eton, brother of 
the one I had known, who had given me a letter to him. 
He took me to hear the speaking, which had already 
begun. The speaking was confined to the sixth form — 
the highest class, and considering the small number 
from which the speakers were chosen, it was quite good. 
There were several dialogues, funny pieces, serious 
speeches, bits of poetry, and parts of plays acted out. 
A French dialogue by Moliere was particularly well 
done. A piece by J. R. Lowell — spelled on the pro- 
gramme with one I — was given, but not well. There 
was a lot of enthusiastic applause among the boys and 
their friends. 

Lunched with Rawlins, the master, and some of his 
pals. After lunch his brother, my old friend the bar- 
rister, turned up and took me under his charge. He had 
arranged to have me invited to the grand lunch and to 
sit at the head table, but I had come too late for him to 
find me. 

We then walked to the cricket field. It was the most 
lovely bit of ground, perfectly level, of well-rolled and 



304 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

closely cut turf, thick and green, and it was surrounded 
on all sides but one with grand old trees, the foliage 
growing down to the very ground. Ladies in pretty, 
bright costumes were walking about and under the 
trees; the Royal Band from Windsor was playing de- 
lightfully, and in perfect tune, which is not always true 
of the bands in England outside the most noted ones. I 
was presented to the headmaster of Eton. He is a great 
rowing authority, and we agreed that the English eights, 
or racing boats, were built without enough "floor" 
fore and aft. I was also presented to Mr. Chitty, who 
was stroke oar for a year or two of the Oxford 'Varsity 
crew and also a double first, and is now a successful 
barrister (afterwards an eminent judge) and always 
umpires in the great boat-race between the university 
crews of Cambridge and Oxford. 

i He said that whatever improvements they may have 
made since his day in boats, oars, and style — they had 
introduced the sliding seats — they did at least one 
thing worse and that was the coaching. Nowadays a 
coach, says he, thinks he is not doing his duty unless 
he is constantly calling out to his men and correcting 
them for some fault or other. The oarsmen get confused 
and irritated and then do not pay any attention. I do 
not know that that applies in America to any particular 
generation. In fact, coaching from outside the boat it- 
self has been rather new at Harvard, but most of our 
coaches do call out and even swear at the men far too 
much. I coached the 1875 crew till just before the race 
and they beat Yale, and I found it was much better to 
talk calmly, explain fully, and have private talks with 
the men, merely giving a word of reminder when they 
were actually rowing, and that no shouting or swearing 
is the least bit necessary or does any good. 



LORD TENTERDEN ON THE SULTAN 305 

Took tea with the headmaster and afterwards at a 

Mrs. 's, where I met Professor Gurney. On account 

of a dinner engagement in London I had to leave be- 
fore the great procession of boats and the fireworks, but 
I saw some of the boys in their boating uniform. The 
cockswains were dressed in full admiral's toggery, and 
all wore gaudy uniforms varying according to the crew 
they represented. 

Drove back in open carriage to London with Pro- 
fessor Gurney and dined with Mrs. Julius Pollock, 
where I met Lord Tenterden, Mr. and Mrs. Rowcliffe, 
another Mr. and Mrs. Pollock, the Reverend Mr. H. R. 
Haweis, a distinguished and rather free-thinking clergy- 
man, Mrs. Haweis and four or five others. The death of 
the Sultan of Turkey was discussed. Lord Tenterden 
said he thought the Sultan committed suicide. In gen- 
eral, in England, people laugh at the idea. Tenterden 
said it was a great mistake to think that the Sultan was 
nothing more than a pleasure-seeker. He was a man of 
ambition. He prided himself on being the only ab- 
solute monarch in the whole of Europe, unless the Czar 
of Russia was to be excepted, and his word was law. 
Tenterden said that in all the conferences with the 
various English ambassadors, the Sultan had been 
reported as a man of determination, good sense, and 
strong will. He had force of character enough to travel 
all over Europe, and he was the only Sultan, it must 
be remembered, that had ever done so. Then, too, he 
was a man of strong passions and one who had not been 
taught to control them. From his high position, then, 
this ambitious monarch suddenly found himself de- 
prived of all power and not even allowed the dignity of 
carrying side arms, a thing much thought of by the 
Turks. So great a change for the worse with a man of 



S06 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

hotter blood than our Westerners, and with no chance 
ever to regain his power — what would be more natural 
than suicide with him? Of course, when one considers 
that this was the opinion of the head of the Foreign Office 
at a critical moment in European affairs, it ought to 
have great weight, and he would not have said so much, 
I believe, on this subject unless it was really his strong 
conviction. 

The ladies sang after dinner. Lord Tenterden and I 
walked away together, he leaving me at the corner of 
Jermyn and St. James's Streets, and we talked a little 
of our last summer's experiences; all in his cheery, 
jovial, and bright way, though he had some cause for 
being depressed, as his wife was seriously ill and their 
marriage had been a love affair. On returning to my 
room I found a kind note from the Honorable Dudley 
Fortescue, asking me to dine. 

Wednesday, June 7 

Delivered some letters of introduction in the afternoon 

and dined at Simpson's celebrated restaurant. 

Thursday, June 8 

By appointment Mrs. H. Rowcliffe called for me with 
her sister, Mrs. Pollock, in her carriage for a drive in the 
park. We got out of the carriage and walked up and 
down the broad path. We met Lord Tenterden and 
several other friends. There was a great scarcity of 
pretty young ladies on horseback, or rather the young 
ladies on horseback were few of them pretty. Perhaps 
the present costume is not particularly becoming. They 
all ride side-saddle, with long skirts and tall silk hats. 
At half -past one I went by invitation to Mr. Russell 
Sturgis's box at Drury Lane to Buckstone's benefit. 



BUCKSTONE'S BENEFIT 307 

Sturgis is one of the senior partners of Baring Brothers, 
the great bankers. This benefit was the great theatrical 
performance of the year and I was extremely lucky to 
see it, for all the seats had been taken long before and 
I could not buy one for love or money. 

All the best actors in London took parts in the play, 
"The School for Scandal." Irving took the part of 
Joseph Surface, Miss Neilson, of Lady Teazle, etc. 
Irving was rather stiff and formal and seemed unable to 
descend from Hamlet and Macbeth. The play was not 
over till five, and then Buckstone made a long speech 
in answer to a complimentary and by no means short 
poem spoken by a popular actress. He began by ex- 
plaining why the Prince of Wales could not come to the 
performance, but had regretted, etc.; how the Duke 
of Connaught had been present during the early part 
of the play, but had been called away. Then he told of 
his own life; how he began at eleven shillings a week 
and at the end of the first week the company broke up 
and he was never paid; how the actress who just re- 
cited the poem was his first love; how he was still 
obliged to act and not leave the stage to younger and 
more brilliant actors — cries of " No ! No ! Hear ! Hear ! " 
— but that he had seven apologies which were his seven 
children; how his feelings overcame him, and how many 
pounds, shillings, and pence had been subscribed and 
taken at the door. 

I met in the box Mr. Sturgis and his daughter, Pro- 
fessor and Mrs. Gurney, and a man whose name I did 
not catch. Mr. Sturgis made a remark which implied 
that all men were bad, but some were hypocrites and 
some, like Joseph Surface, more honest. I think I could 
have shown him several of my classmates and friends 
who were genuinely true. I remember meeting one 



308 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

fellow in Paris who, because he belonged to a rich club 
and associated with rich friends and drank a good deal, 
though never to excess, I assumed to be rather loose in 
his morals, for he had no religious professions, but I saw 
a great deal of him in that tempting city and found, 
from his actions and from what friends said of him and 
the friends he chose, that he was as true to high prin- 
ciples as any of the best of the fellows I know. Why a 
man of Mr. Sturgis's character and social and banking 
influence should say such a thing before a young man 
like myself, I do not know. For some young men trav- 
eling abroad, whose principles were perhaps hanging in 
the balance, a remark like this might have tipped the 
scales for the worse. 

Delivered more letters. I found Mr. Gladstone had 
moved from his handsome house on Carlton House Ter- 
race, where I saw him last year, to 73 Harley Street, 
Cavendish Square. Gladstone very much regretted 
the change. The Carlton Terrace house had been his 
home for forty years, in which most of his children 
had been born, and where he had most of his great tri- 
umphs in politics and literature. He felt he must take 
a smaller house now that some of his children were 
married, for reasons of economy, but he left the old one 
with a pang. 

From four in the afternoon to about half -past eight 
in the evening, the cabmen prefer taking their chances 
on short affairs to being engaged by the hour at 2/6. As 
the rate is but sixpence per mile, it shows that they get 
a good deal to do. They tell me that they make most 
off short trips of about three quarters of a mile for one 
shilling each. While the rate is sixpence a mile, one 
shilling is the minimum fare. 



LONDON MUSIC 309 

Friday, June 9 

Called on the Claytons, Parkers, and Mr. Smalley, 
the London correspondent of the New York "Tribune.'' 
Mr. Smalley said that he thought Governor Hayes, of 
Ohio, was the most probable candidate for Republican 
nomination this summer. (This turned out to be a true 
prophecy and shows how well informed Smalley was.) 
Had a pleasant talk on politics. I thanked him for what 
he had done for my father in the London press at the 
time of his nomination as Minister to England. Got 
a kind letter from Lord Coleridge inviting me to two or 
more breakfasts with him and suggesting taking me to 
the courts. In the evening I dined at Dr. Pollock's and 
went to a musicale at a friend's, where there were many 
professionals and amateurs. All the music was of a very 
high order. While the English generally are not a musi- 
cal race and many of them do not know whether a band 
is in tune or not, and many, both men and women, with 
good voices lose the pitch, yet there are in London es- 
pecially some of the most highly cultivated musical 
people that are to be found anywhere in the world, and 
it was my good luck to strike one of these very sets this 
evening. 

Saturday, June 10 

Letters from Professor Gurney, Lord Houghton, and 
Mrs. Arnold, all inviting me for various occasions. I 
went to a matinee concert and heard Beethoven's 
"Kreutzer Sonata" for violin and piano splendidly 
played. I got a note from Mr. Russell Sturgis later in the 
day asking me to spend the next Sunday at his country 
place, but had to decline, having accepted a dinner with 
Lord Coleridge for that day. This evening I dined with 
the Honorable Dudley Fortescue. I met there his wife, 



310 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Lady Camilla Fortescue, Mr. and Mrs. Loyd — spelled 
with one I — and a Mrs. Ford. I took the latter into 
dinner and sat next to her. I was very glad to meet 
Fortescue, whom my father thought one of the most 
refined and intelligent men in England. He has no 
title beyond that of "Honorable" and is the second son 
of Earl Fortescue. He has for many years been a mem- 
ber of Parliament and has held several important offices. 
He is modest and most attractive. He talked delight- 
fully and on many interesting topics, but I kept no 
notes of the conversation. Lady Camilla is the daughter 
of the Earl of Portsmouth, and is also, like her husband, 
a good conversationalist, speaking with intelligence, 
choosing appropriate words, with a delightful enun- 
ciation, and showing an interest in every subject that 
came up. 

Sunday, June 11 

St. James's Church, Jermyn Street, in the morning; 
a beautiful Ibsen interior. At six-thirty in the evening 
I dined very informally with Lord and Lady Coleridge 
and their daughter. After the ladies had gone out, Lord 
Coleridge was good enough to talk to me alone for nearly 
an hour. It appears that it was he who attracted the 
attention of the editor of the "Guardian" to an article 
on the English Ministry in connection with my father 
and had him write some correction. The English news- 
papers have all taken the stand of greatly regretting my 
father's want of confirmation, but a few of them made 
some error regarding the action of the Senate Com- 
mittee. 

Lord Coleridge spoke of his father's death. I told 
him how glad I now was I had seen his father and how 
my father had particularly wished me to meet him as 



COLERIDGE ON THE HOUSE OF LORDS 311 

the representative of the perfect type of the gentlemen 
of the old school, as well as a distinguished judge. I told 
him how I was visiting the Duke of Argyll at the only 
time that he, Coleridge, could arrange to have me visit 
him and see his father, and how pleased I now am that 
I had shortened my visit and not stayed on as the 
Duchess had kindly asked me to do. 

Lord Coleridge, in speaking of his American friends, 
said it had been his fortune never to have met a dis- 
agreeable one. He spoke particularly highly of Horace 
Binney, Jr., as being one of the pleasantest men he had 
ever seen of any country. 

Speaking of the House of Lords, he said that if that 
body would oftener put out its whole powers, say once 
a week, as it had done twice during the year, it would 
be a very great weight in the country. The debate a 
few weeks ago he said was better than anything he 
had heard during the year in the Lower House. In the 
Lords no one is afraid to speak out and one hears real 
opinions. Motions in general were more thoroughly 
discussed than people supposed. Because there was 
less form and less time taken up than in the Lower 
House, it did not necessarily follow, by any means, that 
there was less thought in the same proportion. He 
said that the Chancellor was not respected and obeyed 
in the House of Lords as the Speaker was in the Com- 
mons and that he could not absolutely maintain order; 
he could only suggest. This want of power might be a 
source of trouble in exciting times, Coleridge said. 

To show the entire trust in the Speaker of the House 
of Commons and how he is allowed to act arbitrarily 
at times, Coleridge told me two stories. In one case 
an admiral stood up several times the same evening and 
several times it was quite clear that he was the first man 



312 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

standing. The discussion was on a university bill. Not 
being able to catch the Speaker's eye, he complained 
of it afterwards to that august officer. He was an- 
swered pretty much as follows: "Of course I did catch 
your eye. I saw you rise several times first, but you 
must be aware that you do not know anything about 
the university bill. Had it been a naval bill I should 
have had you out several times." That was said in good 
nature and taken pleasantly. Another speaker in Lord 
Coleridge's time used to say that after ten o'clock p.m. 
he never got anybody's eye back of the front bench. 
What a row would such language from the President of 
the French National Assembly produce! 

Once when a university bill of Coleridge's was brought 
before the House, Disraeli said some rather cutting 
things, to which Coleridge replied, although he knew at 
the time that the reply was somewhat out of order. 
"Dizzy" got up and objected. The Speaker hemmed 
and hawed somewhat, but decided he would not inter- 
rupt. No one objected any further. Afterwards the 
Speaker said to him alone, "You really were out of order, 
Coleridge, and I shall have to stop you another time, 
but I let it pass then." It was pretty well understood 
by all that it was giving a chance for a telling hit back 
and no one objected. All had perfect confidence that 
the Speaker would keep the reply well within bounds. 

Lord Coleridge said that the Duke of Wellington used 
to be a duelist, and on one occasion had argued that 
sometimes a man's words were such that he should be 
made to retract them or be willing to stand by them 
with his life. This language was rather curiously brought 
up against him when he was advocating the suppression 
of dueling in the army. The late Sir Robert Peel had 
fought one or more duels in his lifetime. 



COLERIDGE AS A CLASSICAL SCHOLAR 313 

While in Parliament, in the Lower House, Lord Cole- 
ridge told me he once wished to quote something from 
Goethe, and when he came to the point, he was afraid 
to pronounce the name, for he was not a good German 
scholar, so he said, "As says a celebrated German." 
He told this story against himself in very good humor, 
and how he made it a rule to mention the name 
wherever possible and not to make vague allusions in 
his public speeches. 

While talking of Greek art I happened to mention 
Praxiteles as in the fifth or sixth century B.C. Coleridge 
corrected me, but he, being for the moment doubtful, 
I suggested that I might possibly be right. Before, how- 
ever, we had looked it up in any book of reference or 
history, we began to compare historical facts, and I soon 
saw that he was right and that I for a moment had con- 
fused the date of Praxiteles with that of Phidias. 

He told me that his father, when fresh from Oxford, 
once corrected a Chief Justice. His father turned out to 
be right and the Chief Justice afterwards said, "You 
happen to have been right in this case, but as a rule I 
should advise you not to dispute a Chief Justice." Lord 
Coleridge said, while alone with me, that he had been 
very doubtful about accepting the peerage, but that 
Gladstone urged it very strongly on the ground that 
it would be a benefit to the bar in general if its leaders 
should become titled. It would spur them up to their 
best efforts. He, Coleridge, also said that the Queen 
had asked him no less than three times to accept. 

I found that Lord Coleridge had never read Quintil- 
ian, which gave me so much help and delight in college, 
but that he had begun to read him lately. This omis- 
sion was the more strange, as Coleridge was not only a 
classical scholar, but intended to follow the profession 



314 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

of the bar and to take up politics, and the "Institutio 
Oratoria" was just in the line of his training, thought, 
and ambitions, and as an orator would have been help- 
ful. He has a very bright mind that acts quickly and 
surely and it does one good to be with him, and then, 
too, he is so utterly frank and has such a beaming 
smile and friendly manner ! I only wish I could remem- 
ber one half of the good things he said on this and other 
occasions. 

Monday, June 12 

Breakfasted with Sir Frederick Pollock, whom I met 
last spring. He is the son of the late celebrated Chief 
Baron Pollock who tried so hard, by his decisions and 
by refusing to allow an appeal, to let the Laird rams 
built for the Southern Confederacy go from the port of 
Liverpool in violation of England's neutrality. This 
branch of the family has little to do with the other 
branch whom I knew through Lord Tenterden. Sir 
Frederick and Dr. Julius are only half brothers. 

Sir Frederick spoke of the general feeling of disap- 
pointment throughout England at not having my father 
as Minister to Great Britain from the United States. 
Lady Pollock, an authoress and a woman of large ex- 
perience and great taste in literature and the French 
stage, thinks Irving has the vrai feu sacre. In a certain 
sense I agree with her and in a certain sense not. Irving 
has done much to elevate the stage, has his plays well 
prepared and all his fellow-actors well trained, but there 
is something artificial and stilted in his manner that 
always reminds one that he is acting, and in that he so 
differs from the great French actors. Lunched with 
Lord Houghton — pronounced Howton. There I met 
Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Dean Stanley of Westminster 



BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS 315 

Abbey, Professor and Mrs. Gurney, the two daughters 
and the son of Lord Houghton. I took the younger 
daughter down. Both daughters are pretty, and pale. 
At the first sitting at the table, people had arranged 
themselves badly, and in the subsequent changes Lord 
Houghton told his younger daughter to go over and sit 
next to me. She, being a little bashful, hesitated some- 
what. I immediately got up, went over, moved out her 
chair, and escorted her to the place next me, and that 
broke the ice. Lord Houghton was well known as an 
author of both prose and poetry, by the name of Rich- 
ard Monckton Milnes before he was made a peer. 

Baroness Burdett-Coutts must be about forty years 
of age. The date of her birth is carefully omitted from 
the "Peerage," but as in 1837 she inherited a large 
amount of property and changed her name by adding 
Coutts, she was at least alive then. She is immensely 
wealthy, fabulously so, has founded and endowed 
numerous institutions for religious, benevolent, and 
philanthropic purposes, built model lodging-houses in 
Bethnal Green, and the magnificent Columbia market, 
the latter costing about $1,000,000. She has brilliant 
eyes, bright color, wore a broad-brimmed Gainsboro 
hat, and was very well dressed. She was bright in con- 
versation, though more serious than witty, and was 
pretty much the centre of attraction at the lunch. I 
talked with her a good deal on sociological and phil- 
anthropic subjects. 

Dean Stanley was extremely kind to me. He of- 
fered to show me over Westminster Abbey in person 
and gave me his card, which I was to send in, and he 
mentioned some hours when he would be at leisure. I 
accepted the card, but told him I thought it was too 
great an imposition on his time to show me about and 



316 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

thought the card would help me to see many portions of 
the abbey usually closed to strangers. I never availed 
myself of his kind offer to conduct me in person. Per- 
haps it was a mistake, because they say he enjoys show- 
ing the abbey, and as for myself, it would have been 
a great delight to spend an hour or so with a man of such 
high character, charming conversation, deep religious 
interest, and profound knowledge of the history of the 
abbey. 

Lord Houghton was in very good spirits and bright, 
keen, witty, and cheerful. Usually the English lunches 
break up immediately after the meal is over, as do the 
breakfasts, because the London days are so full that it 
is the etiquette to leave at once after these meals are 
over, but in this case the conversation was so inter- 
esting that we lingered on at table for an hour or more 
after the coffee. The Baroness was talking to the Dean 
and Lord Houghton about some further plans of hers 
for some special philanthropic work, I do not remember 
just what. 

Dean Stanley told us some Jews were now looking 
over several old Hebrew manuscripts at the abbey, 
among which were old accounts of money lent the Gov- 
ernment. I walked with the Dean from Houghton's 
till our ways parted. Lord Houghton asked me to 
breakfast with him on Saturday, the 17th, but I already 
had another engagement for that hour and only wished 
I could be in two places at once, he is so delightful. 
On leaving the house Dean Stanley could not find his 
hat. I remembered seeing it upstairs, so I started up 
to get it for him, but he followed me three quarters of 
the way. 

Called on Lord Tenterden, Mr. Russell Sturgis, the 
Honorable Dudley Fortescue, and Mrs. Pollock, and 




DEAN STANLEY 



BREAKFAST WITH LORD COLERIDGE 317 

left a card at the Duke of Argyll's, though I knew he 
was out of town for the present. I dined at St. James's 
Hall. 

On account of the lunch at Lord Houghton's I had 
to decline a second pleasant invitation for a day's out- 
ing with Mr. Russell Sturgis at his beautiful place on the 
Thames River. I forgot to say, too, that I had to de- 
cline an invitation to spend Sunday the 11th at the 
Edwin Arnolds' on account of my dinner with Coleridge. 
The Sunday evening dinner hour at the Arnolds' I saw 
was fixed in the note very early, namely, at half -past 
five. 

Tuesday, June 13 

Bkeakfasted with Lord Coleridge; his son and heir 
Bernard being present. I was asked for quarter to nine. 
I arrived at five minutes of, and found them just finish- 
ing morning prayers. Lord Coleridge had expected to 
have for to-day the summing-up of the Albert Grant 
case, but just as he was about to leave his house his 
clerk said that this case was put off till Wednesday. 
Lord Coleridge was pretty certain that he had set it for 
to-day. The clerk hesitated and stammered, not liking 
to contradict "his lordship," but said that he had re- 
membered it was Wednesday and that he feared it was 
so announced in the "Times." A "Times" was brought 
and the clerk proved to be right, though there may have 
been an error in fixing that date; but it settled the mat- 
ter, however, for the day's proceedings. 

During breakfast Lord Coleridge told several funny 
stories. One was of a young dandy army officer. He 
was asked at the opera if he did not think the prima 
donna, who had just been singing divinely, had done 
well, and he replied, "Verwy — ah — haw — easy is 



318 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

the word." Lord Coleridge imitated the fop with su- 
preme contempt and with an excellent drawl, followed 
with hearty laughter from us all. We drove down in 
a four-wheeler. On the way the conversation was largely 
on family horses. Lord Coleridge opened the court, 
looking very odd in his ugly pink-and-blue caped gown. 
His long, curling white wig was becoming to him. There 
were six cases on the short list; that is, subject to im- 
mediate trial. Four were put off for various reasons, 
one of them being on account of the absence of the oath 
of physicians as to the insanity of a person; a letter 
the judge held not being sufficient. The barrister on the 
defense for the sixth case was in another court, so the 
judge returned to the fifth. It was a complicated case 
on many business transactions, with numerous letters 
involved, but Coleridge had tried it once at nisi prius 
and it had come up on appeal. The barrister was not 
very familiar with his brief. The attorney sat below 
and kept handing papers, written slips, and memoranda, 
and whispering to his barrister. But Lord Coleridge 
cleared the ground rapidly, remembering many of the 
incidents from the former trial, put the barrister at ease 
by refreshing his mind, and soon the case went on 
smoothly. Coleridge asked many questions of the wit- 
nesses, showing that he understood the case better than 
the barrister, and his questions very much aided in get- 
ting at the merits of the case in hand. This English 
practice of allowing the judge to ask questions, and also 
giving him power to shut out irrelevant testimony with- 
out request of counsel, helps very much to shorten the 
trial of jury cases; but in America, especially since the 
Know-Nothing movement in the fifties, we have been 
very averse to giving our judges the old Anglo-Saxon 
authority, and we thereby very much lengthen trials 



ENGLISH LADIES AND POLITICS 319 

and give up one of the best aids to securing justice. I 
left the court at noontime. This was in the Court of 
Common Pleas, of which Coleridge is Chief Justice 
with a salary of $35,000 a year. Lord Coleridge told 
me that when he was very busy, as Attorney-General 
trying cases in the daytime and sitting in Parliament 
in the evening, he made it a rule to ride horseback 
every morning before breakfast, but that now that his 
work was easier he had given up that practice. 

Wednesday, June 14 

Visited London Tower in the afternoon. Dined in the 
evening with Mr. Shean, Upper Phillimore Gardens, 
Kensington. I was ashamed to find that I was late by 
some fifteen minutes. The hour was set at seven-thirty. 
Mr. Shean is a celebrated barrister and a friend of West- 
lake, at whose house I met Shean and his wife. I had 
to decline another invitation for dinner for this same 
evening at the Russell Gurneys'. The Sheans were 
extremely kind, and I passed a delightful evening, dis- 
cussing many topics of public interest in England and 
America. Mr. Francis Allston Channing, a cousin of 
mine, was expected, but did not turn up. He had very 
high honors in college and is a promising young member 
of Parliament (and was made at first a baronet and 
afterwards, in 1912, Lord Channing of Wellingborough). 
The ladies in England, as I said before, take far more 
interest in politics than the ladies in America. This is 
perhaps more natural because it is the educated classes 
that rule, and their wives and daughters become natu- 
rally conversant with all that is going on; but even in the 
families of those Americans who are educated and also 
in politics, the ladies do not seem to take the same in- 
terest, at least in the large questions. This may be be- 



320 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

cause there are so few of them to stimulate one another 
and they often do not follow their husbands to Wash- 
ington, and when at Washington so much time is taken 
up with the concerns of petty squabbles for patronage. 
(Of course this is very much changed in America 
especially in recent years.) 

Thursday, June 15 

Breakfasted again with Lord Coleridge at his usual 
hour of eight-forty-five. All the servants, some ten or 
more in number, were present at the morning prayers. 
It does one good to see a man who has had more than 
the usual share of worldly honors and success still 
keeping up the religious duties and finding time for 
these daily family morning prayers during all the claims 
of a London season and his duties as a judge. Lord 
Coleridge has to be at the courts before ten-thirty, and 
the courts are half an hour's drive from his house, 
number 1 Sussex Square. These morning services were 
impressive, and as Lord Coleridge read a passage that 
seemed to strike him, he marked it in the margin with 
his pencil, just as he had done at Honiton. The read- 
ing was slow, clear, well but not over-emphasized, and 
reverential. The servants went out, and then we had the 
usual breakfast without their aid, each person passing 
what his or her neighbor needed and the gentlemen 
going to the sideboard to carve and serve the meats, 
etc. Lady Coleridge poured out the tea and coffee. 

During breakfast Lady Portland called to see Lord 
Coleridge on the vivisection bill on which Lord Cole- 
ridge seemed to be somewhat non-committal. After 
breakfast he read me some passages from Erskine on 
the treatment of animals. Coleridge has deep sympathy 
for the animals and is in favor of preventing cruelty to 



THE STRATHCLYDE CASE 321 

them, but felt that vivisection was too valuable an aid 
to saving human life, health, and happiness to be given 
up, provided proper precautions were taken to avoid 
unnecessary suffering. Lord Erskine was, said Cole- 
ridge, the greatest bar orator England has ever had. 

Bernard, the eldest son of Lord Coleridge, is rather 
quiet, but very sensible and his remarks are fitting and 
forceful. He is not tall like his father, who is over six 
feet, but is about five feet nine inches, I should judge. 

I drove down to Westminster with Lord Coleridge 
in the four-wheeler that comes for him every morning. 
On the way down he spoke of the visits of Victor Em- 
manuel, King of Italy, to Buckingham Palace, saying 
that the King attended his Catholic services with the 
utmost regularity and conscientious scrupulosity, but 
that in his private morals he was so bad that he had 
to be spoken to and reminded that Queen Victoria and 
Prince Albert did not allow such actions as his in Buck- 
ingham Palace. 

Lord Coleridge took me by the judges' entrance to the 
high court. The case under consideration was that of 
the Strathclyde, and the question was whether there was 
criminal jurisdiction for the British courts over a for- 
eigner on a foreign ship which was passing within 
the three-mile limit of the English coast, but not within 
any harbor when the act complained of took place. 
There were fourteen judges. Cockburn, Chief Justice 
of the Queen's Bench, presided, with Lord Coleridge at 
his right. When we first came into the court-room 
thirteen of these judges were on an upper bench or plat- 
form with large desks in front, and one, Sir Robert 
Phillimore, had been put down at a lower bench on a 
level with the clerk of the court, but that position he 
did not like, and so with considerable moving he had 



322 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

a separate seat prepared for him on the upper row in 
a much more dignified position and more suitable to 
his attainments and rank. 

I sat in the jury box close to Sir Robert, and he spoke 
to me several times during the day, pointing out some 
of the eminent counsel and in the intervals asking me 
what I was doing. I had nothing but a series of English 
hospitalities and kindnesses to report. 

Judah P. Benjamin, who had been Secretary of War 
in the Southern Confederacy under Jefferson Davis, 
was chief counsel for the defense. The Strathclyde was 
a German ship and it was a German captain who was 
under criminal indictment. Benjamin, of course, was 
against the jurisdiction so as to get his client freed from 
trial in an English court. He opened the argument as 
it was on an appeal on a point of law, and during his 
argument he quoted from Dana's "Wheaton." Lord 
Cockburn said he had only Lawrence's edition and the 
Solicitor-General, who was arguing on the other side, 
said he had been unable to own Dana's, though he had 
tried to get it, as it was out of print. 

Benjamin quoted from Bluntschli and Lord Cock- 
burn stopped him and asked who that was. It was 
strange that Cockburn did not know a writer on inter- 
national law of that celebrity, whom I myself knew of, 
though I had never made a special study of that branch 
of the law. Benjamin began to explain, and in order to 
give him his proper status, said that Bluntschli was often 
quoted, as His Honor would remember, at Geneva; 
that is, during the great Alabama arbitration case. His 
Honor then said that he had never heard him quoted 
before as an authority, but that it might have been done 
at Geneva, and ended with these words: "There were 
many things said there not worth attention." This re- 



LORD COCKBURN IN COURT 323 

mark was followed by great applause from the bar. The 
court was crowded with barristers. This was rather a 
peculiar remark from one who was the arbitrator on 
behalf of Great Britain in the Alabama case sitting with 
the United States and neutral arbitrators, and as one 
of them it was his duty, of course, to hear all that could 
be said on both sides, and especially was it ungracious, as 
the decision was unanimous against Great Britain, with 
the exception of Lord Cockburn, who was in a minority 
of one. Cockburn had shown loss of temper at the de- 
cision and refused to sign some papers or to do some 
other act — I forget just what it was — that would 
normally be required, just out of ill-will. 

Such language very much confirmed Lord Cole- 
ridge's stories about Cockburn which he had told me 
when I visited him at Honiton last September and which 
he repeated in outline again to-day. 

Cockburn kept constantly interrupting Benjamin 
and asking questions. He started with a strong preju- 
dice in favor of jurisdiction and hardly allowed Benja- 
min to finish his sentences, but Benjamin was won- 
derfully patient and respectful and kept driving his 
point home, which in the main was that there was no 
precedent whatever for this jurisdiction; that if it had 
existed it must have been brought into play on one 
or more occasions; and that the absence of any such 
precedent was pretty strong evidence that the juris- 
diction never existed. He also argued that the three- 
mile limit was established for international purposes of 
other sorts, such as fishing, and to stop naval fights 
among belligerents too dangerously near the shore. 

Lunched at the Parliament bar with young Drum- 
mond. (I wonder if this was perchance Henry Drum- 
mond, the author in 1883 of "Natural Law in the 



324 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Spiritual World." He was of the right age and the only 
one of that name and age in England I can find any 
trace of. The Drummond I met was a promising young 
man, and we found we had some interests in common, 
just such as he cared for and wrote about.) Returned 
to court and stayed listening to the argument till 
the adjournment, which was at four o'clock. In the 
evening dined at Mrs. Rowcliffe's and there met my 
dear Lord Tenterden, Mrs. E. S. Rowcliffe, Dr. and 
Mrs. Pollock, and Mr. Charles Lanyon, son of Sir 
Charles Lanyon. He had been in America and was 
in Boston at the time of the great fire of 1872. A quo- 
tation was made from my father's notes on " Wheaton" 
in the course of the evening. Lanyon thought the new 
part of Boston in the Back Bay one of the finest things 
of its kind in the world unless he excepted some of the 
new parts of London. He thought Fifth Avenue, too, 
was "fine for its houses," but they were more monoto- 
nous with so many more built alike than in the Back 
Bay of Boston where more individuality of architecture 
was shown. 

After dinner we all went to a dancing party at Judge 
Lushington's. The dancing seemed to me poor, for 
they never reversed. They started off dancing round 
and round very fast till they got dizzy. There were the 
two young Coleridges, sons of the Chief Justice. I 
danced with a young lady, some relative of my friends, 
and spoke of becoming dizzy from lack of reversing, 
to which latter I was accustomed. I had come to the 
dance unexpectedly, it was a sort of afterthought, and 
so had no kid gloves — neither had Lanyon — while 
most of the men wore them. In reply to my remark on 
the absence of reversing, my partner said, "You must 
have become dizzy because you did not wear gloves." 



A DANCING PARTY 325 

On this I asked her if I should not take her to her 
mother. She is said to be very bright and to think 
herself a great wit, and often makes cutting and im- 
polite remarks. Lanyon took me to a small club where 
men gather in the evening, not the Cosmopolitan, but 
a less celebrated one for younger men. He was very 
kind and offered to make me a member of the Reform 
Club. Found on getting back a note from Dean Stanley 
asking me to breakfast with him at Westminster Abbey 
day after to-morrow; also a card from the Reverend 
and Mrs. Hugh Reginald Haweis for afternoon tea, 
with music and a weekly "at home." 



CHAPTER XIX 
LAST OF LONDON REVISITED 

Friday, June 16 

I breakfasted again with Lord Coleridge, who took 
me a second time to the High Court, where I stayed till 
twelve. Charles Lanyon was with me. I was intro- 
duced to Benjamin, with whom I had a few words; he 
was very cordial and spoke of my father; and also to 
Cowen, a leading barrister, reporter of decisions, etc. 
(and afterwards a judge) ; also to a Mr. Wilson who was 
in the same box with me. In the afternoon called on 
various people, among them Sir Robert Phillimore, who 
was at home and spoke about some books he was send- 
ing my father. Called also on Lord Houghton, who was 
out, Professor Gurney, who was out, Lady Pollock, who 
was at home, and Mrs. Russell Gurney, who was also 
at home and who asked me to dine with them on the 
28th. I left cards, too, on the Sheans. Dined at St. 
James's Restaurant and in the evening was taken by 
the Pollocks to a public concert, where was good music 
of the very best type. On coming back to my lodgings, 
found a note from Lanyon asking me to breakfast with 
him at the Reform Club. 

Saturday, June 17 

This was the morning for my breakfast with Dean 
Stanley at the deanery, Westminster, and I was 
promptly on hand. His wife, Lady Augusta, had died 
only a few months before and there was a look of deep 
sadness in his dear gray eyes. He and his wife were made 
one when they married, lived together as one, but le bon 




&&&&^^te&*Q&2g£i^ 



RT.-HON. SIR ROBERT PHILLIMORE 



BREAKFAST WITH DEAN STANLEY 327 

Dieu, as the French call him, had not willed that they 
should leave this world together, so he lingers behind. 
It was as interesting as it was a great honor to be 
breakfasting in his rooms at the abbey and a rare priv- 
ilege to hear his sweet mind opening itself on the 
deep topics that absorbed him. Though myself rather 
inclined to be High Church, but not ritualistic, I 
felt inspired with his desire to conciliate the High and 
Low Church factions into a wide toleration and com- 
prehension of different points of view. Why should 
Christians, and especially those of the same Church, 
wrangle over unessential differences when there should 
prevail the essentials of divine love, love and respect 
for fellow-men, and the supremacy of morality and 
conscience? His hope of a higher and more pervad- 
ing Christianity, whenever the unimportant differences 
should be lost sight of and the great things kept in 
mind, on which he touched, was simply superb. His 
face, as he spoke earnestly, was as near the face of an 
angel as I ever saw, and yet it was a sort of human angel; 
the kind of heaven where such love and goodness would 
prevail was far more interesting than one of winged 
beings and harps of gold, and how infinitely grander 
than some of these spiritualistic manifestations of that 
life with all the talk about clothing, troubles, and usual 
incidents of our daily life. 

He said he was sorry I had not accepted his invitation 
to have him take me about the abbey in person, as he 
had meant it sincerely and it would have given him 
pleasure, and perhaps he might have arranged to take 
one or two other people at the same time. 

Almost immediately after this delightful breakfast, 
went by train to the south end of London to spend the 
day with Lord Tenterden on the borders of the Thames. 



328 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

There was a yacht race and we went out sailing to see it. 
The race was between two boats, one an American 
owned by Sands, and the other English owned by Mr. 
Clark. The water was rough and the wind fierce at 
times, though at others there was only a fresh breeze. 
We saw the best of the race, though not the finish. One 
of the boats lost a topmast. At one time the balloon 
jibs of both boats were set and that on one yacht was 
carried away, but another was set quickly. Returned 
to shore and lunched with Lord Tenterden and we 
fished in the early afternoon with moderate luck. Ten- 
terden is something of an Izaak Walton in his enthusi- 
asm for the rod and line, though the broad waters of 
the lower Thames in this case were not quite Walton's 
setting. Returned in the end of the afternoon. 

On getting back to my lodgings, found a note from 
the secretary of the great Reform Club announcing 
that I had been unanimously elected an honorary 
member for one month. Lanyon tells me this was out- 
side of the rules and a special compliment. These people 
are really too kind and flattering in their attentions. I 
dined at the club. I also found a pleasant note from 
the Duchess of Argyll asking me to an evening recep- 
tion on the 25 th and expressing regret that they had 
missed me when I called. They got back to town only 
a few days ago. 

Sunday, June 18 

To church with Mrs. Dr. Pollock and Mrs. Rowcliffe 
and afterwards lunched with Mrs. Rowcliffe. Im- 
mediately after lunch started for Pembroke Lodge, 
Richmond, where I saw Lord and Lady Russell, Lady 
Amberley, Rollo, and some other young men. Lady 
Russell very kindly asked me to stay to dinner and she 



A TALK WITH ANTHONY TROLLOPE 329 

expressed sorrow that my father had not been sent as 
Minister to England. There is the same beautiful view 
from the terrace over the valley of the Thames. " That 
has remained unchanged," she said to me as she laid 
her hand on her daughter's shoulder. Her eldest son, 
Lord Amberley, had died not long before, making a 
great change in her life. She asked me to visit them 
Saturday and Sunday next. I was not able to stay to 
dinner, so, following afternoon tea, went back to Lon- 
don, where I dined with the Edmund Dicey s. There I 
met a brother of his who commands a fleet in China and 
was at home on a furlough. I had also to decline a 
dinner with Anthony Trollope as I had accepted the 
Diceys' dinner first. Dicey is a clever writer, a bril- 
liant man, well informed on all the topics of the day, 
and a well-known lecturer. We had much interesting 
talk. It is a great education to meet such men. 

We adjourned to the Cosmopolitan Club. There 
we saw and had chats with Lord Houghton, Lord Al- 
exander Russell, the son of the sixth Duke of Bedford, 
Mr. Field from America, Sir Henry Thompson, the 
great surgeon, Anthony Trollope, and Sir William Ver- 
non Harcourt. The latter I only bowed to and shook 
hands with, for he went off only too soon. Had a little 
talk with Trollope, who was sorry I could not come to 
dine with him and again spoke pleasantly, as he did 
last year, of many agreeable evenings with my father 
and mother on the Continent. He said my father was 
one of the most entertaining raconteurs he had ever met 
and spoke of his wit and wide information, all which 
made conversation where he was present so entertain- 
ing. 



330 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Monday, June 19 

Called on Rawlins with my classmates Wigglesworth 
and Sanger, to whom he was very kind and helpful. In 
the evening dined at Fishmongers' Hall at the invita- 
tion of Mr. Russell Gurney, who presided. I sat op- 
posite him and next to Mr. Cyrus Field. There were 
many speeches, toasts, and songs, and an enormously 
elaborate and expensive dinner, beginning with a course 
of turtle soup, the most delicious I ever tasted. As we 
went out they gave us each an enormous box of choice 
sweets, London's very best. The dinner lasted from 
five-thirty to ten-thirty. Friendly relations between 
America and England were brought out in some of the 
addresses, and as usual at these big dinners, a touch of 
English politics. From the dinner I went to the Princess 
Theatre, where I had been invited by Lord Tenterden 
with Mrs. Pollock and a few others in his party. Irving 
was acting in the "Bells" and "Stratagem." I was too 
late to see the "Bells" which was one of his favorite 
pieces, but the "Stratagem" I enjoyed very much. 
Irving, to make himself appear young, rises on the balls 
of his feet, but does this more than any youth in real 
life, so produces an air of affectation in walking. His 
phrasing was excellent, though his voice is too artificial, 
while the scenery and the staging showed skill, fore- 
thought, and artistic feeling. I passed my delicious box 
of candy round the party, and one of the ladies, under- 
standing that it was a gift to her, took it away, rather 
to my inward disappointment. 

Tuesday, June 20 

Went to the Claytons' for dinner at seven-thirty at 
Stafford Terrace, Kensington West. Among the guests 
was an Irish friend of Chief Justice Cockburn who had 



LORD COCKBURN AND CALEB CUSH1NG 331 

been at Geneva with him, but he said nothing of that 
famous international case. Much interesting conversa- 
tion, some of it on American women, who received no 
little praise, which I was glad to hear for they are so 
often misjudged as a class on account of the few con- 
spicuous nouveaux riches. 

Wednesday, June 21 

Breakfasted again with Lord Coleridge, who presented 
me with some of his printed speeches, among them his 
argument in the Saurin vs. Starr case — 1869 — a case 
of alleged petty persecution in a convent which excited 
great public interest, and his still greater argument in 
the Tichborne Claims suits. He had thoughtfully put 
his autograph in each. Prayers as usual. He spoke of 
the India questions. He said that there was very little 
interest in Parliament in them. That was one of the 
subjects on which the members seemed bribed, they had 
so many relatives in the India service or private inter- 
ests there of various kinds. Of course Lord Coleridge 
did not mean direct bribery, but that sort of insidious 
self-interest that prevents a free discussion from the 
point of view of the good of the natives. 

In the cab going to the court he spoke again of Cock- 
burn at the Alabama trial at Geneva and of how he lost 
the influence that his unusual knowledge of languages 
and law should have given him. He told me the story, 
which I have related before, of Caleb Cushing; how 
Cushing, one of the counsel for the United States, a 
linguist perhaps quite as good as Cockburn himself, 
asked in what language — German, French, Italian, or 
English — the court would prefer to be addressed, and 
how Cockburn leaned forward and said, in almost 
angry tones, "In Choctaw, in Choctaw." 



332 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Coleridge spoke of Admiral Farragut and his intre- 
pidity. There were numerous other topics, one relating 
to whitebait; how at first one always had to go to Green- 
wich until it suddenly occurred to some one that they 
could carry the whitebait to London as well as carry 
themselves to the old town down the river. He told me 
some story about briefless barristers which I forget, 
and something about old dogs and that we must not 
believe all that is told us about them, and then of trees, 
their planting, and development, and some story about 
Sir Roundell Palmer, now Lord Selborne. 

To-day all the judges wore red gowns. Lord Cock- 
burn, while listening, was working his jaw. He was not 
chewing anything, but just moving it back and forth. 
The Solicitor-General who was arguing spoke of the 
United States District Courts and the admiralty juris- 
diction as being "Federal." Lord Cockburn interrupted 
and asked him what he meant by the District Court and 
the Federal courts of the United States. I believe there 
were only two judges out of the fourteen — Lord Cole- 
ridge and Sir Robert Phillimore — who seemed to know 
anything about the distinction between them and the 
State courts. Sir Robert leaned forward and gave a 
very clear and perfectly accurate account of this dif- 
ference. 

Here were some twelve of the most eminent judges 
of England who seemed to know nothing about the 
Federal courts and their powers, and I venture to 
say that not one of them would have hesitated to have 
given an opinion that the Southern States had a con- 
stitutional right to secede; and yet the establishment of 
Federal courts which have jurisdiction between States, 
may declare a State law unconstitutional and void, and 
which have a right to enforce their decrees through the 



ENGLISH JUDGES AND AMERICAN COURTS 333 

Executive, should have great weight in considering the 
right of secession. Apparently these judges were not 
aware of anything but State courts and probably were 
equally ignorant of other provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, as that Congress may pass laws to guarantee re- 
publican form of government in the various States, 
that the Constitution is the highest law of the country, 
and that Congress has supreme authority where the 
Constitution has given it a right to act. 

Left in the early afternoon and went to Mrs. Fowler's 
"at home" from four-thirty to six. Mrs. Fowler is a 
very interesting invalid, drawing about her many lit- 
erary, musical, and theatrical people of the best sort. 
There was much brilliant and interesting conversation 
on books, authors, the stage, music, and politics. It 
was almost like a French salon without the delicacy and 
refinement of French wit. 

Dined with Mr. Ferguson. There were present a 
recent graduate of Caius (pronounced Keyes) College, 
Oxford, and a captain belonging to the British service 
in India. Having these engagements I had to refuse 
an invitation to go for a pleasant coaching party to 
Oxford and back given me by Mr. Sands, the American 
yachtsman whom I had met. 

Thursday, June 22 

A very kind letter from Mr. Ferguson to bring my 
classmates Wigglesworth and Sanger to dine with him 
in the House of Commons. They, however, were away 
and I had already accepted an invitation to dine with 
Lanyon at the Reform Club. Lunched at the Reform 
Club, where the service is so wonderfully good and the 
cooking excellent and where one who has been chosen an 
honorary member is made to feel so much at home and 



334 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

not de trop as when I first went there as a mere visitor. 
Made various calls in the afternoon. After a pleasant 
dinner with Lanyon at the club, during which he offered 
to do many things for me, he took me to the Alhambra 
Theatre. The performance was of a very dull sort with 
a great deal of ballet and not much of any plot, and the 
music rather second-rate. In the intervals we talked 
over American politics, over the question of the respon- 
sibility of Ministers to the House of Commons, and 
whether it would be well to extend that system to the 
House of Representatives in Congress in the United 
States, to the extent at least that members of the 
President's Cabinet might sit in the House, speak and 
be interrogated; whether it would not make Congress a 
more responsible body and their debates more interest- 
ing and bring the Administration's view to bear more 
directly upon legislation, as well as to secure informa- 
tion through this direct questioning. On the other hand, 
there was the fear that Congress might get too much 
power over the Executive. Again, however, was the 
argument that the Executive would have a splendid 
opportunity to present its views to the public, such as it 
does not have in its formal reports to Congress which 
are read in that body only by title. (President Wilson 
has since revived the early custom of reading his most 
important messages to the Congress assembled, with 
great effect.) 

Friday, June %3 

Dinner at Mr. Smalley's. There were present Mr. 
Brownson, Dr. Priestley, and Mr. Henry Tuke Parker. 
Brownson is the son of the celebrated Roman Catholic 
philosopher of America, who died last spring (1875). 
The son is preparing to publish his father's writings and 



MATRONS AT ENGLISH BALLS 335 

life. Smalley told us he got the prophecy of Hayes's 
nomination from Mr. Washburne, our Minister in 
Paris. This was very fair-minded of Smalley, who 
might have got great credit to himself for his astuteness 
in predicting the event. 

After this dinner I attended a large ball at Welles's 
rooms at the invitation of Mrs. Pollock. Welles's is one 
of the most fashionable halls for large London parties. 
The dancing was confined to the centre of the room, 
which was roped off with handsome crimson cord 
stretched on substantial stands. The mothers and ma- 
trons sit about the outer edge of the hall and every 
young lady is attached to one of these; so that after a 
turn at dancing, perhaps followed by a short promenade, 
one always takes the young lady back to her matron. 
This has one enormous advantage over our American 
system of no individual matrons at all; none but two or 
three to preside in general. Here a man is never obliged 
to sit out a long time with the same young lady, as 
frequently happens in American society. As a conse- 
quence, in England the men are much more ready to 
dance with young ladies who are not especially popular, 
and it does not exaggerate the attention to the favorites 
and inattention to the "wall-flowers," which our sys- 
tem inevitably does. 

I found a very charming partner in a Miss Heatly, 
who danced much better than most English girls. I 
went home at three-thirty, when the ball had begun 
to thin out. The light was so bright in the streets that 
one could read a newspaper easily. I was also invited 
to a Caledonian costume ball at a later date, but had 
to give that up on account of other previous engage- 
ments. 



S36 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Saturday, June 24 

At Pembroke Lodge in the afternoon for tea. Warm, 
mild, rare day in June. At dinner were two Miss 
Ogilvys, daughters, I believe, of the seventh Earl of 
Airlie, and if so, then Lady Henrietta and Lady Maud, 
and their aunt Lady Maria Ogilvy; the Honorable 
George William Russell, Lady Agatha, and Professor 
Richard Owen, professor in the Royal College of Sur- 
geons and now the Superintendent of the Natural His- 
tory Department of the British Museum, living near 
by in Richmond. (Later he was knighted for his great 
work in developing the Natural History Department.) 
Rollo Russell was away. Professor Owen said Newton 
was not an accident any more than Plato or Aristotle. 
We discussed Descartes and a good deal of philosophy 
in general. 

I had received an invitation from the Prime Minister, 
Disraeli, to meet His Royal Highness the Prince of 
Wales at ten-thirty this evening. I had arranged with 
a cabman to take me to a train at Richmond that would 
get me to London for this reception, but the wretch 
never turned up and when the time for his appearance 
had passed, it was too late to catch that or any other 
train that would get me from Richmond to London in 
time. So I missed this interesting reception by a mere 
accident. I ought to have offered the coachman double 
fare to insure his coming. It was good Lord Tenterden 
who had secured this invitation for me, telling me that 
it was readily granted by Disraeli, who knew of my 
father and had heard of my being in England. 

Sunday, June 25 

Spent the night at Pembroke Lodge and went with the 

family to church at eleven-fifteen, walking through the 



SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE 337 

park and seeing the deer, and again we had the old- 
fashioned beadle in his party-colored gown. We had an 
informal lunch, but without Lord Russell, who had not 
come downstairs. After lunch we walked about the 
grounds and Lady Russell repeated some lines by 
Bryant which had been a great comfort to her son, 
Viscount Amberley, in his last illness. She wanted me 
to let Bryant know of this and promised to write the 
lines out. I told her I knew Bryant personally and he 
was a great friend of my grandfather, who gave such 
high praise in his literary criticism of Bryant's "Thana- 
topsis" that there has always been a pleasant feeling 
between the families and a long correspondence. 

Walking up the steep path I gave my arm to Lady 
Russell, who is just a little past sixty, and though seem- 
ingly very well, is troubled in going uphill. The Right 
Honorable Sir Stafford Northcote and his daughter, Lord 
Romilly and his daughter, and Lord Plunket came in the 
afternoon. A little lawn tennis was played on the old 
bowling green, so lovely and velvety and shut in by 
high, flowering shrubs. Northcote, the eighth baronet, 
born in 1818, had high honors at Oxford, has received 
no end of big appointments and responsibilities, and is 
now Chancellor of the Exchequer and in Disraeli's 
Cabinet. He was on the Joint High Commission at 
Washington that drew up the treaty referring the 
Alabama difficulties to arbitration. He is said to have 
shown great conciliatory powers. He is a thorough 
gentleman, but seems rather mild in his manners and 
opinions for a hard fighter in the House of Commons. 
(He became a few weeks later the leader of the House of 
Commons when Disraeli was elevated to the House of 
Lords. In 1885 Northcote was made Earl of Iddesleigh.) 

Lord Romilly lately succeeded his father, the cele- 



338 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

brated Baron Romilly, Solicitor-General, Attorney- 
General, Master of the Rolls, and long a leading mem- 
ber of the House of Commons. 

Had afternoon tea at which Lady Edith Quin, daugh- 
ter of the third Earl of Dunraven, turned up. She was 
somewhat my senior and had that charm for a young 
man that a slightly older woman so often has. There 
were more men present than ladies, a rather unusual 
state of affairs for an afternoon tea in the suburbs. 

Lady Russell spoke about natural manners — that is, 
manners prompted by a good heart that come naturally 
to one who has been used to meeting cultivated people. 
She admitted that a good heart alone would not always 
bring good manners, for want of experience, but she had 
a dislike to the outward veneer without a good heart 
behind it, as the imitation was sure to show sooner 01 
later and would always lack spontaneity and freedom. 
Lord Russell, who appeared at the afternoon tea, dis- 
coursed on Sir Walter Scott and his personal reminis- 
cences of him and how Scott had ruined the last part 
of his life by spending so much money on Abbotsford 
and getting in heart-breaking debt. 

Monday, June 26 

The day of the Duke of Argyll's reception. Opened my 
eyes on another beautiful June day at Pembroke Lodge. 
Soon after breakfast Lady Russell went off and I re- 
turned to London. She forgot to write out the lines of 
Bryant. (But later she sent them to me. I forwarded 
them to Bryant with a note and he sent back a pleasant 
letter, which I mailed to the Countess.) Went with Mr. 
and Mrs. Ernest Longfellow and their cousin Miss Mary 
Longfellow, of Portland, Maine, to the Oxford and 
Cambridge cricket match at Lords. I had played 



A CRICKET MATCH AT LORDS 339 

cricket at St. Paul's School, where I was captain of both 
the school and my club eleven, so I watched the play 
with a critical interest and was delighted to be at Lords, 
the scene of so many wonderful matches. There were 
many drags and handsome carriages, fashionable 
dresses, and elaborate luncheons, with much beauty 
among the women and fine figures and faces among the 
men. This is one of the great social events of the Lon- 
don season. Parts of the match were quite brilliant, 
with some long hitting, but there were periods of block- 
ing and nothing going on. There were long intervals for 
lunch and afternoon tea. 

Dined at the Reform Club and after dinner went to 
Argyll Lodge, where I met the Duke and Duchess, Glad- 
stone, and others. Gladstone talked on Greece and 
asked me many questions. He wanted to know about 
the inhabitants, whether they were being well educated, 
becoming industrious, etc., and asked me about the 
bookshops in particular. I told him that I went into all 
the bookshops there were in Athens and the books 
seemed mostly intended for travelers — books in Ger- 
man, English, and French. There were, of course, 
Greek newspapers, but I did not see any Greeks in the 
bookshops nor did they seem to be intended for Greeks, 
though, of course, some of the Greeks dress in European 
costume and read modern languages, so that some few 
natives might have visited these bookshops without my 
knowing it. I told him the short, deep-plaited white 
skirt of the men, with short jacket, and white leggings, 
was still much worn in Athens, but the European, in the 
sense of French and English, costumes were coming rap- 
idly into use. 

I could not tell him about the modern methods of 
education or how far the Government was establishing 



340 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

free schools, except that I saw no large public school 
buildings such as we have in the United States, and, 
therefore, I gathered that they could not have adopted 
any extensive system of state or municipal education, 
though I knew there was some education at public ex- 
pense I had heard of, but that was of the lower primary 
grades. I told him I had heard that there was very little, 
if any, artistic talent among the school children at 
Athens. I said, too, that the inhabitants were not in- 
dustrious, were great talkers, fumbling strings of beads, 
not as a religious ceremony, but as a help to conversa- 
tion; that they were inclined to be idle, and the peas- 
ants, even in the neighborhood of Athens, used very 
old-fashioned methods of agriculture. On the whole, 
my observation of modern conditions had been only 
too superficial and I felt like a college student who 
was called up unprepared and was trying to make the 
most of what little knowledge he had to cover his 
deficiencies. 

Gladstone spoke of Bonamy Price and of his ability 
and earnestness. Lord and Lady Selborne were there 
and spoke very kindly to me. There were also Lord 
Walter Campbell and his wife, the Marquis of Lome, 
and several of the daughters of the Duke, but Princess 
Louise was absent. I met there a Lady Palmer who 
was particularly agreeable. I think she must have been 
the wife of Sir Archdale Palmer, Bart., and if so, she 
is a daughter of Earl Ferrers. It was one of those very 
pleasant receptions where natural good manners, such 
as Lady Russell spoke of, prevailed, and I quite forgot 
that I was with such distinguished people in the ease and 
naturalness of all the conversation, excepting perhaps 
when I was being cross-questioned by Gladstone. 




RT.-HON. WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 



BREAKFAST WITH MONTAGUE BERNARD 341 

Tuesday, June 27 

Breakfasted at the Oxford and Cambridge Club with 
Mountague Bernard, the celebrated English interna- 
tional lawyer, one of the High Joint Commissioners to 
the United States and signer of the Treaty of Washing- 
ton; also assistant counsel for the English in the Ala- 
bama arbitration at Geneva and till recently a professor 
of international law at Oxford. I was very glad to meet 
him, especially as my father thought so highly of him. 
We had no profound conversation; my fault, I suppose, 
as I should have drawn him out, but it takes some 
little cleverness and experience to draw a man out on 
his specialty without its being too patent an effort. I 
could not have asked him to give a lecture on inter- 
national law. 

(I did not then know that he had written a letter 
on the Trent Affair after the news of the capture of 
Mason and Slidell had become known in London. Had 
I been aware of this letter I might have asked him the 
grounds for his opinion, which was that, while the tak- 
ing was in accord with old English law, England had 
abandoned those principles long ago. She had, how- 
ever, as a matter of fact, officially refused to abandon 
her old claims only two or three years before the cap- 
ture of these gentlemen.) 

He was very kind in offering to aid me in various 
ways and talked pleasantly of his regret at my father's 
not being appointed Minister to Great Britain and of 
the value of his notes to Wheaton's "International 
Law." From so great an authority this was a high 
compliment, indeed. (A recent high compliment has 
been paid these notes in that the Carnegie Endowment, 
in getting up a new edition of Wheaton's "Interna- 
tional Law/' is to use Dana's notes as the foundation 



342 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

and starting-point for the new work, which is to deal 
with events since Dana's notes were written.) 

Drove to Windsor on a coach and four from London 
with the Longfellows, back to Twickenham by rail, and 
then we rowed in a small boat on the Thames downstream 
to Richmond ; a remarkably pleasant excursion. A water- 
man rowed the boat back, for a shilling or two. From 
Richmond returned by train to London. I had declined 
a dinner with Lord Coleridge this evening for fear of 
being late in getting back, having already made ar- 
rangements for this trip. Lord Coleridge, in a letter 
on my arrival in London, explained that he was in 
mourning for his father and therefore could not enter- 
tain me as he would have liked to do, but with the 
numerous breakfasts and his second invitation to dinner 
he could hardly have done more excepting to allow 
me to meet a greater number of distinguished people 
among his friends at a larger dinner. In the evening 
went to hear Albani in "Faust." The audience was 
cold and some people were going out during the prayer 
scene and destroying the artistic effect. 

Wednesday, June 28 

Breakfasted with the Longfellows. Called on Edward 
Dicey, who was at home; on the Argylls, who were out; 
Lord Coleridge, out; Sir John Kennaway, out; Mrs. 
Rowcliffe, out; and Mrs. Pollock, who was at home. 
Dicey was unfailingly interesting. The call was short. 
Dined at the Russell Gurneys' and took in Mrs. 
Gurney and sat at her right. I had to decline a musicale 
at the Reverend H. R. Haweis's for this same evening. 
The dinner was a large one, some twenty or more people 
being present, many of them quite distinguished. As 
the dinner went on I heard some one farther down on 



BONAMY PRICE'S VOICE 343 

the opposite side of the table talking very loud and 
monopolizing much of the conversation. The tone of 
voiee instantly recalled to my mind an imitative story 
that my father told of Professor Bonamy Price at the 
Union Club in Boston. The dinner had been w given for 
Price. My father was presiding. Price sat at his right 
and just beyond him, President Eliot. Professor Price 
shouted out that he did not believe in a constitution 
which never could be amended and did not see how the 
people of the United States could endure it. Then my 
father and President Eliot each tried to explain to him 
that it was possible to amend the Constitution, but to 
their first few suggestions he repeated his words, "Of 
course your constitution cannot be amended," in a 
raucous voice. Then when it began to dawn on him 
what they were saying, he replied, "What! What! Do 
you mean to say that you can amend your Constitu- 
tion? Why, any constitution that can be amended is no 
constitution at all. It is not different from a law if it 
can be amended." Then my father and President Eliot 
took him gently in hand and began to explain that 
while it could be amended, it took much more time, for- 
mality, and consideration than an amendment to a law, 
and eventually it had to be adopted by three quarters 
of the States to be valid. 

My father's imitation of the voice; of the persistent, 
loud assertion, and the wild defense, coming as it did 
in a flash, made me exclaim to myself, " I believe that is 
Bonamy Price ! " though I had not the slightest idea that 
he was going to be at this dinner, and I asked Mrs. 
Gurney if it were he and she said it was. 

At the end of the dinner, when it was time for the 
ladies to retire, Mrs. Gurney made several attempts to 
rise, but Price was talking so loud and persistently that 



344 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

she had to wait long for an opportunity without in- 
terrupting, when suddenly Price turned to her for con- 
firmation of something he had just been stating. She 
then answered him quite slowly and rose at the end 
of her remark which just gave her the chance. It 
seemed so strange that Professor Price, who is a Pro- 
fessor of Political Economy at Oxford, should not have 
known that the Constitution of the United States was 
amendable and have had some faint impression as to 
how an amendment could be brought about. He, how- 
ever, is a dear man when you come to know him better, 
as I found from a little talk. It is largely a matter of 
habit with him, a sort of thinking aloud — very much 
aloud. After the ladies had gone, the conversation 
turned on the subject of the row at Constantinople — a 
German by the name of Mr. Weiser, a boy's tutor, a 
protest to the German Government, a girl at the Deacon- 
ess's School, a scene in Smyrna, a boy recognizing the 
tutor in a mosque, etc. 

After dinner I went by invitation of Baroness Bur- 
dett-Coutts to a reading at her house by Henry Irving. 
He read "Macbeth." In some respects his reading 
seemed more perfect than his acting on account of his 
dropping some of his stage mannerisms which are not 
always suitable to the part and so often spoil the illu- 
sion which good acting ought to produce. A large and 
fashionable gathering in a great house; recognized many 
friends. The Baroness appeared at her best and gave 
me a very cordial greeting. 

Thursday, June 29 

Lunched with young Gurney, nephew of Russell Gur- 
ney, at the Devonshire Club. He was on the committee 
of investigation of spiritualistic phenomena. He told 



SPIRITUALISM AND PRESTIDIGITATION 345 

me that almost every single case that they had investi- 
gated could easily be explained as tricks, for Anderson, 
the celebrated prestidigitator, whose widow has been 
giving them help, when living could do the same things 
with one single exception, and that exceptional case 
after all seemed to be only a trick just one step more 
difficult than the others. This latter was this. A woman 
was sewed up in a bag which was sealed with sealing 
wax and stamped by the private seals of some of the 
audience. She was then put behind a curtain in a hotel 
where there could be no trapdoors or other such ar- 
rangements, and the committee remained all the while 
in the same room. She then appeared outside of the 
bag, with the seals unbroken when the curtain was re- 
moved. Henry Irving, the actor, came into the club 
during lunch, but we did not talk with him, receiving 
only a bow. 

I went down to the city with Mr. Gurney to see some 
of the great London banking and financial offices. Called 
on the Spencers, who were out, and Lady Coleridge, who 
was at home. 

I had to decline an invitation for this evening with 
Sir Robert and Lady Phillimore for dinner, having pre- 
viously accepted an invitation to dine with Sir Henry 
Thompson, F.R.C.S., the celebrated surgeon and Pro- 
fessor of Clinical Surgery in University College Hospital. 
He is about fifty-six years of age and has a charming, 
cordial manner. He is generally admitted to be the 
leading surgeon in Great Britain, yet he is not narrowly 
confined in his resources to his profession, but is a col- 
lector of rare china, an astronomer, an artist in painting 
and etching, some of his works being hung in the Royal 
Academy and at the Paris Salon, and in his own pro- 
fession has made discoveries and dared new kinds of 



346 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

operation. He is also much interested in dinners as a 
fine art, in both the selection of food and company. He 
told me that the number should not be over Horace's 
rule of nine, the number of the Muses, and he usually 
had eight, for with more than eight he thought general 
conversation was impossible and it is general conversa- 
tion that lightens up a dinner. Eight requires a broad 
table with two at each end to have the host and hostess 
opposite. He had eight courses also. He is the author 
of several works on his subject and on some outside 
matters. He said he was glad to see me, first on my 
account and second on my father's, a very flattering 
way of putting it. (He was later made a baronet for 
his distinguished services.) 

There I met Sir Robert Collier, the "Right Honor- 
able," formerly Solicitor-General and Attorney-Gen- 
eral, and now a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 
member of the Privy Council, and author of various 
books on law. He told me that he thought Dana's 
notes on "Wheaton" the best source of international 
law and spoke of the Winslow case, saying that he be- 
lieved England was wrong in her attitude. This is the 
case of a man who had committed forgery in the United 
States and had fled to Great Britain. Earl Derby, now 
Foreign Secretary, refused to give him up unless the 
American Government would give an undertaking that 
he and other fugitives would not be tried for any of- 
fense other than the one for which their extradition 
was asked. The United States declined to make any 
stipulations and assurances not provided for in the 
treaty which now governs the situation. (Later in the 
same year the British receded from this position and 
surrendered the fugitives," the American Administration 
indicating that they were not disposed to try extradited 



BREAKFAST WITH SIR JOHN KENNAWAY 347 

offenders for any crime other than that which had 
caused their surrender.) Sir Robert Collier is fond of 
painting and we talked of sketching, how to produce 
atmosphere, and the effect of distance. He went to 
India with the Prince of Wales on his recent trip. We 
talked on the iron trade question. He said that the 
emigrants were "not starved out on the White Star 
Line," as stated in some of the newspapers. 

On the way home I called at Sir Robert Phillimore's 
to meet the guests after his dinner, which I had been 
unable to attend. Canon Liddon and Lady Phillimore 
were there and very kind. They were quite jolly, threat- 
ening to keep me as a hostage until my father was 
brought over as Minister to England. 

Friday, June 30 

Breakfasted with Sir John and Lady Kennaway at 
nine-thirty and a number of guests, about ten in all. 
It was a very heavy breakfast, as is usually the case 
in England, where but few have adopted the French 
menu for this meal. They had a variety of meats and 
eggs, beside coffee, toast, rolls, and marmalade, the 
guests for the most part waiting on each other. All 
left promptly, right after breakfast, according to the 
usual custom. It is this custom that enables breakfasts 
and lunches to be given without breaking up a large 
part of the day. 

I sat next to Lady Kennaway and she divulged sev- 
eral plans which she and her husband were proposing 
for me to join in with them. However, I was not able 
to accept on account of leaving so soon for the Conti- 
nent. I have been receiving many very kind letters 
so warm-hearted that I feel I have made real friends 
with many of these good people and I have come to 



348 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

have a strong affection for them. Earl Spencer has 
just written me that he has been out of town on business 
most of the time since my last return to London, with 
an invitation to luncheon which I cannot accept on 
account of having made arrangements to go to Henley, 
and the letter ends up with saying, "Lady Spencer 
and I will be truly unhappy to have altogether missed 
you." 

Among other interesting men I met was Mr. James 
Bryce, professor of civil law at Oxford and author of 
"The Holy Roman Empire." (Later he wrote "The 
American Commonwealth," was ambassador to the 
United States, and is now Lord Bryce, a man of great 
distinction and high honors, who is still doing much 
useful work at the age of eighty-two and whose mind is 
as keen and memory as sure as it was years ago. When 
ambassador at Washington, he and his wife invited 
Mrs. Dana and myself on several occasions to lunch, 
dinner, or afternoon tea.) Another distinguished per- 
son was Mr. Lyon Playfair, a well-known scientist, a 
member of Parliament and recently Postmaster-Gen- 
eral in Gladstone's cabinet. (He was made K.C.B. in 
1883 and raised to the peerage in 1892 under the title 
of Lord Playfair of St. Andrew's. He died in 1898.) 

Many have called at my small lodgings, as Sir John 
Kennaway, Sir William Vernon Harcourt, the great 
Gladstone, Sir Henry Thompson, and several others. 
Kennaway was afraid I was not comfortable and thought 
I ought to have larger rooms and a separate parlor, but 
I told him, while I might afford it, I was so much out of 
my rooms and had the privilege of so many clubs that 
I hardly needed this extra room and did not like to 
put the unnecessary expense on my father who had a 
large family, and that I was very happy as I was, with 



BOAT-RACES AT HENLEY 349 

all my kind friends and overflowing English hospitality, 
and he said he respected my attitude. I have one good- 
sized room with writing-table, book-shelves, comfortable 
chairs, etc. 

After the Kennaway breakfast went to Henley to see 
the boat-races with the Longfellow party. It was a most 
lively scene with the Chiltern Hills for a background. 
The surface of the river was almost invisible from the 
number of boats and punts of various kinds which were 
pushed to the banks when the various races came off, 
leaving just room for the racing crews, and as soon as 
one heat or race was over, the surface seemed to be 
covered again. 

It is a short course of one and five sixteenths miles, 
rowed upstream, equal to nearly two miles on still water. 
I saw there Goldie, the celebrated Cambridge stroke, 
and also Tinne, the captain and largest man of the four- 
oar that defeated the Harvard four in 1869. Though an 
Oxford man he was wearing the Cambridge University 
light blue boating coat, probably one he had borrowed 
from a friend. It was a bright, sunny day and the people 
were dressed in gay colors. The races occupied a long 
time, as there were several and most of them rowed in 
heats. We only saw the crews distinctly toward the end 
of each race; the course was just short enough to make 
the contest pretty much of a spurt all the way and the 
men seemed to be badly used up in all the races that 
were close. This tends to prove what I have always 
contended, that a short race of two miles or so, in which 
the crews can spurt nearly all the way, is more exhaust- 
ing and more likely to be injurious to the men than a 
four-mile one where the crews must settle down to long, 
steady work, where skill and perfection of rhythm rowed 
at a slower stroke count for more than mere spurting. 



350 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

On the whole the rowing was excellent. People took 
their luncheons on the banks or in the boats. I got 
Mr. William Bradford, who had been so kind to me at 
Cambridge lately, to join us. 

I was to dine this evening with Mr. Lewis Loyd, 20 
Hyde Park Gardens, and had looked up the trains and 
found the one I should have to take in order to get back 
and dress in time for the dinner. I left before the races 
were over and before the Longfellows were to return. At 
the station I found great confusion. The train started 
late and we were so held up by extra trains on the way 
that I did not arrive in the London station till very 
nearly dinner-time, which was nominally seven-forty- 
five, that is actually eight. I did not have the Loyds' 
address with me so that I could not send a message, and 
all I could do was to fee the cabman to drive at full 
speed to my lodgings, dress as quickly as I could, and 
hurry to the dinner, finishing putting on my collar and 
tying my cravat in the hansom. When I arrived the 
party had just sat down, but I learned to my regret that 
they had waited some twenty-five minutes for me, and 
there were a number of very distinguished guests. I 
felt much chagrined and sorry too for my hostess. 
Among the guests was the Right Honorable George 
John Shaw-Lefevre. He has been very prominent as a 
member of Parliament, is credited with carrying in 
the House of Commons the vote for the arbitration of 
the Alabama claims, was Secretary of the Board of 
Trade under Bright. (He has since, in 1906, been made 
Lord Eversley for his distinguished services.) There 
were about twenty persons present. I begged them to 
let me in with the plat qui marche, but they insisted upon 
bringing me some of the first courses. Shaw-Lefevre 
was very interesting, the most so of any of the guests. 



GEORGE JOHN SHAW-LEFEVRE 351 

He has a pleasant, bright, clear-cut, sincere, and earnest 
manner. I wished I had the opportunity to know him 
better. He is one of the sort I should have liked to make 
an intimate friend of. His father was Speaker of the 
House of Commons and was one of the guests whom my 
father met at Lord Cranworth's in 1856. There were 
many others whose names I did not get, but who all 
seemed au courant with the large affairs of the kingdom. 
I had met Mr. Loyd at the Fortescues' dinner, and it 
was so kind of him to ask me when he was under no ob- 
ligation that I felt doubly sorry for my lateness. Of 
course I explained the situation and tried to carry it off 
as cheerfully as possible, after expressing my regrets, 
saying that I had no idea that the crowds returning 
from Henley would be so great as to delay the trains. 
Mrs. Loyd was most courteous and kindly, but I was 
sure that she was a good deal upset or at least had 
reason to be. The conversation, however, became so 
interesting that I think before the evening was over my 
lateness had been forgotten. 

Saturday, July 1 

Went for a week-end visit at Cranleigh, near Guilford, 
to the E. L. Rowcliffes. The other guests were Mrs. 
Julius Pollock and her daughter Lilian, Mr., Mrs., and 
Miss Greg, Mr. Harrison, a member of one of the largest 
firms of solicitors in London, and Mrs. Edward Row- 
cliffe. It was a delightful, warm, calm evening, in most 
beautiful surroundings, fine large gardens with roses 
and many fragrant and brilliant flowers most tastefully 
arranged, delicious strawberries and various other kinds 
of fruit, with wandering paths through arbors, and 
everything that one could imagine to make the place 
attractive and that care and taste could devise. Dinner 



352 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

was at half -past seven. In the evening the ladies sang 
and played the piano. 

Sunday, July 1 

To church, walking there and back with most of the 

household. 

Monday, July 3 

They showed me a fishing pond which was just being 

emptied. To-day was another beautiful day and we all 

had lunch out of doors and took a drive in the afternoon. 

We had views of what seemed almost wild country, with 

no houses in sight and yet such a short distance from 

London. 

Tuesday, July 4 

Drove eight miles to breakfast with Mr. Harrison at 
seven-forty-five. We saw the assizes with the trumpeters 
going on before the judge to the Guilford court-house, 
the sheriffs, marshals, and other officials, all in full uni- 
form, making a great ceremony, the like of which we 
never see in the United States. Arrived in London at 
half -past ten and left in a couple of hours for my second 
trip on the Continent, stopping at Canterbury Cathe- 
dral on the way. 

Wednesday, July 5 

Made a ten-weeks' trip on the Continent, chiefly in 
France, Brussels, Germany, Switzerland, and the north 
of Italy. On the field of Waterloo I had a strange mix- 
ture of feeling, a certain sympathy for Bonaparte and 
a wish that he had conquered, and, on the other hand, a 
satisfaction that it was the British who won. At Berlin 
I noticed the hours of meals at the chief hotel to be 



BERLIN AND MUNICH 353 

early coffee and rolls on waking, cold meat and beer at 
eleven, dinner at four, and tea or supper from seven to 
ten. At Potsdam one of the most striking things was the 
palace, which had such small, convenient, and homelike 
rooms. The Emperor, William I, apparently preferred 
this to more grandeur. 

Wednesday, July 26 

Visited the Reichstag. The coat-room was very 
small. There was a buffet. Each member is fur- 
nished with a seat with his name on the back of the 
chair and a desk with inkstand and drawer in front. 
Moltke's seat was on the right front, the Prime Min- 
ister on a dais, and the members when speaking did so 
from a rostrum. I saw Bismarck's seat. The Prime 
Minister has a private room for rest, conferences, and 
work. There is no library or writing-room for members 
as in the English Parliament. They sit in a semi-circle. 
Went to the American Embassy and saw Bancroft 
Davis. He kindly expressed his regret that father was 
not his colleague in England. At Munich, staying at the 
same hotel with myself and friends, were the Crown 
Prince and Princess of Prussia. I saw them coming out 
of their carriage after a rain, not at the front door, but 
at a side one. A carpet was laid, but not close to the 
carriage, so that the Princess had to step on muddy pave- 
ment part of the way. The Crown Prince (Frederick) 
came after her, but did not, like Sir Walter Raleigh, lay 
his cloak on the ground for her benefit. 

Monday, August 14 

Had a narrow escape. From the top of the Fourca Pass 
we walked to the Rhone Glacier. On the way we met 
an English clergyman and his friend, a Mr. Salter, who 



354 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

was an experienced Alpine climber and supplied with 
ice-axe and hobnailed shoes. He persuaded us to take 
a short cut to the glacier. We had stout walking-staffs 
with sharp points, but smooth shoes. Some other walk- 
ers joined us. The descent became steeper and steeper, 
first over a grass slope and then by an almost perpen- 
dicular wall of stone and marl. Some of our compan- 
ions became frightened and returned. Later, as we 
kept on it was so steep that we could not see the men 
below us and hardly the men above. Occasionally 
stones would roll down, but by holding our staffs above 
our heads we protected them from any severe blow. 
How in the world we got through without falling and 
losing our lives, I do not know. We had no rope to 
tie us together. Our English friend, an expert climber, 
after it was all over said "it was the nastiest bit of 
grass slope, loose rocks, and gravel" that he had ever 
done. 

Monday, August 21 

After some training on long walks and in glacier work 
we tried the ascent of Mont Blanc. As the trip showed 
some French characteristics it may be worth narrating. 
We started for the Grands Mulets, my classmate, Mr. 
George Wigglesworth, myself, and a young Englishman. 
The weather was fine and we had two experienced 
guides and two porters. We started in the early fore- 
noon, going through the woods the first part of the way, 
the porters carrying ladders and planks, and the guides 
ice-axes and a rope. As we were walking along at a 
moderate pace we heard a rushing and hallooing be- 
hind us and in a few moments a party of three French- 
men with guides and porters passed us running on the 
double-quick. Their guide said they, too, were going 



MONT BLANC 355 

up Mont Blanc. Not long afterwards we overtook this 
same party drenched with perspiration, mopping their 
brows, wholly out of breath and resting. 

As we got on the glacier we were roped together. We 
had to descend a crevasse and mount again on the other 
side with steps cut in the ice on both sides. We saw the 
Grands Mulets in the distance. It was a house on a 
rock projecting out of the glacier and was kept by a very 
jolly, good-natured Frenchman. We had dinner in the 
early evening and sang, waking the echoes. As the sun 
went down it became cold and we all went to bed early 
so as to awake and be fresh for our start to the top at 
morning twilight. All the hard glacial part of the climb 
up Mont Blanc was to the Grands Mulets. After that 
it is one steady climb, more or less difficult according 
to the condition and amount of snow. Just at present 
the snow is hard and the ascent said to be easy. 

During the night I dreamed we were attacked by 
brigands and in a moment was awakened by sounds of 
distant calling, answered by the firing of a gun, and saw 
lights flashed on the window panes. We went out into 
the night air and found our guides and porters starting 
to the assistance of the Frenchmen. These Frenchmen 
were brought in, carried like sacks of meal, by guides 
and porters and placed on the ground. We woke up 
again at three o'clock, the hour of starting, and found 
lightning quite constant toward Geneva, but heard no 
thunder. There were occasional rains with hail, so we 
delayed our starting. At six o'clock we saw the wind 
blowing on the top from the south — "le vent du Midi," 
as the guides call it — and the snow flying, though at 
that moment the sky was clear. Soon afterwards the 
clouds gathered and it did not look very hopeful for our 
reaching the top. 



356 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

We talked with our Frenchmen, who said they had 
taken no previous exercise to prepare themselves for 
the ascent, but had come straight from the sidewalks 
of Paris. They apparently expected to reach the top in 
record time in one magnificent charge with the help of 
frequent nips of brandy. One of these men was quite ill. 

We were impatient to go on, but the guides said we 
were sure to have a storm and that it would be danger- 
ous. As they were to receive far more compensation if 
they went to the top than if we turned back from the 
Grands Mulets, we believed their advice was sincere. 
With deep disappointment we started back in the 
forenoon and just as we left the glacier, there came 
clouds, rain, and fog thick about us. 

Wednesday, August 23 

Walked from Chamonix to Geneva, a distance of fifty 
miles, which we did in about fourteen hours including 
resting and meals, and though rather footsore, came 
through in good condition. 

Saturday, August 26 

Lunched with the d'Hermignys, an old French Prot- 
estant family who have many friends among the nobil- 
ity of France, Italy, and England. One of the Roths- 
childs was present. 

Sunday, September 3 

Back again in England on the way home to America. 
Heard Canon Liddon at Westminster Abbey. Most 
of my English friends were out of town. 

Monday, September 4 

In the afternoon went down for a three-days' visit to 

my friend Charles Harrison, the celebrated solicitor 



LAST VISIT TO PEMBROKE LODGE 357 

whom I met at Rowcliffe's in the spring and to whom 
Lord Coleridge had introduced me. He lived in an old 
house at Guilford, built in 1520, with many rare books, 
Spanish and other curiosities, and uncommon old china 
about. 

Tuesday, September 5 

Mr. Lushington, son of the Reform Bill, came to 
lunch and spoke in high praise of my father's notes to 
Wheaton's "International Law." How thoughtful and 
kind these Englishmen are! There was also a Mr. Roy 
of the United Service Institute. Harrison took us on 
an excursion to Hampton Court in the afternoon and we 
saw the usual sights and some not open to the public. 
In the evening we went to a musicale, where were Mrs. 
Lane Fox, a Mr. Scott, a young Austrian prince, and 
two Miss Osbornes, and others. 

Wednesday, September 6 

After a delightful visit went early to town to pack and 

prepare for the voyage home. 

Thursday, September 7 

Received a telegram from Lady Russell inviting me to 
Pembroke Lodge and down I went in the afternoon. 
Lord and Lady Russell welcomed me with great kind- 
ness and cordiality. I told Lady Russell about my 
father's defense of the fugitive slaves and those who were 
indicted for trying to free them, all done con amore. An 
arithmetical puzzle was given out, which we worked on 
and solved. That led Russell to tell the story of Pitt's 
remembering all the accounts in the most exact detail 
on one verbal hearing and his ability to explain and in- 
terest Parliament in them. 



358 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Lord Russell said he took a great liking to Lafayette, 
and told a story of his saving the life of Prince Jules 
de Polignac, Minister of Foreign Affairs under Charles 
X, who was imprisoned during the Revolution of July, 
1830. The Prince feared murder and got in touch with 
Lord Russell, who spoke to Lafayette, then head of 
the Guards. Lafayette made an appointment and at the 
exact moment turned up at Lord Russell's hotel, the 
St. Maurice, and said, "It must not be; it shall not be." 

Lord Russell spoke in great praise of Charles Francis 
Adams again and his services to the United States in 
England during the Civil War. He thinks that the Re- 
publicans will elect the President of the United States. 
He was very much stirred up by the Turkish atrocities, 1 
and said to his grandson as he was going to bed, "You 
will never fight for the Turks." I again renewed my 
wish at the Wishing Tree and then parted from these 
my most cordial and dear friends with rather a heavy 
heart. 

One afternoon I went to see the London Rowing 
Club at their boathouse at Putney. I had a letter from 
Smalley to Gulston, the captain, but he was out, and 
some other members took me about, showed me all 
their boats, and allowed me to make careful measure- 
ments of their oars, sliding seats, and rigging, and re- 
membered the Harvard four-oar crew that came over 
to row against Oxford in 1869 — J. S. Fay, F. O. Ly- 
man, W. H. Simmons, and Alden P. Loring, stroke, and 
also A. Burnham, the cockswain, and the substitutes, 
Rice and Bass, and they wanted especially to be re- 
membered to Lyman after I told them he was engaged 

1 Those committed against the Bulgarians, which so aroused Gladstone. 
Disraeli 's Government had refused to join the European concert which 
might have prevented these. 



ENGLISH DRESS 359 

to be married to one of my sisters. They expressed the 
opinion that if the race had been rowed a few days be- 
fore, Harvard would have won, as the Oxford crew was a 
little overworked and had to be taken off to the seashore 
for a rest. They also thought that Harvard lost con- 
siderably by steering under an arch with a back current 
in order to avoid the possibility of a foul. There are 
many " ifs " and "ands " in a close boat-race to salve the 
feelings of the beaten side. 

Before leaving for America it may not be amiss to 
say the ladies wore bustles for both day and evening 
dresses. Their day dresses were always high at the 
neck. A quite common costume was to have a waist 
that has the effect of a cuirass — I do not know the 
proper name for it — made of some heavy, often dark 
material, with sleeves of a thinner substance and lighter 
color. There was usually a sort of overskirt, some- 
times longer in the front and sometimes longer be- 
hind, but usually caught up at the sides. The eve- 
ning dress was of rich silks with a round low neck. I 
won't attempt any further descriptions of the very 
varying ladies' dresses. 

I have already described the men's country clothing 
except that I may add they never put on gloves in mild 
weather when not driving or riding. Some few men 
wore knickerbockers and long woolen stockings. In the 
city the men always wore tall silk hats, long black 
frock coats coming about to the knee, and dark trousers 
with some inconspicuous stripe. They almost invariably 
had on thick kid or dogskin gloves, the most fashionable 
color being a reddish brown. In the evening the men 
always wore dress suits, the coat being of the clawham- 
mer style, and black vests with white ties. Gloves they 
did not wear excepting at dances. 



360 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

Saturday, September 9 

Sailed on the Scythia, the largest steamer on the trans- 
Atlantic service from Liverpool to New York. Near the 
end of the voyage I talked with a steerage passenger 
who was a barkeeper in New York. He also had some 
interest in the iron business. He said he found more 
drunkenness in Liverpool and Dublin than in New 
York, especially among the women. He talked much of 
New York politics. He had got one individual Re- 
publican elected in a Democratic district in New York 
City by printing three thousand "Democratic" ballots 
with the candidates for Congress and others of the reg- 
ular party and the name of the Republican he wanted 
chosen, put in toward the end of the list in place of the 
Democratic candidate. The trick worked. (These were 
the days before the Australian official ballot. The party 
committees usually attended to printing the ballots 
with the names of their candidates on them and to the 
distribution of these ballots at the polls, but there was 
no law against any one's printing and distributing 
ballots, so "bogus" ones, as in this case, were often 
given out at the polls, misleading the voters by false 
headlines.) For this service he was appointed a police- 
man, a full patrolman with $1100 a year, and said he 
felt secure in his office on account of his political influ- 
ence. For example, he said he was caught off his beat 
at one time and was only reprimanded instead of being 
dismissed. He hoped to get still more out of politics. 
He said that if you can only get a friend elected, you are 
sure of an office with no danger of removal while your 
friend is in power. He agreed that it was a bad system 
and a cause of corruption in both parties, but he said 
this would never be reformed during the lifetime of 
either of us. (In seven years the United States Civil 



HOME BY THE SCYTHIA 361 

Service Reform Act was passed, followed in two years 
by those of New York and Massachusetts.) 

With this conversation I was recalled to thoughts of 
my country and its sore need of important reforms (in 
which I afterwards took part), such as the introduction 
of the Australian ballot law and civil service reform 
measures, and after a most delightful and I hope in- 
structive and educational trip I am to settle down again 
to the completion of my law studies at Harvard and to 
begin my work in a profession which may be made as 
dry as dust or one of the most stimulating, broadening, 
and useful to the community, according as it is taken 
by those who enter it. 



EPILOGUE 

The precedence which is so strict in France is not in 
England kept up in the ordinary dinners excepting for 
a few of the most distinguished guests. The rules are 
often cast to the winds for the sake of better arrange- 
ment of people at table, to bring out good conversation, 
and for myself, with no precedence at all beyond my 
college degree, they have not infrequently given me 
the place of honor just as a bit of kind hospitality to 
a stranger. 

The aristocracy hold a very high position. The best 
of them feel their responsibility toward their tenants, 
giving a great deal of time and thought, as may be seen 
from this journal, for their welfare, take an interest in 
all the details of the families, and in return are treated 
with respect and deference. There is undoubtedly a 
glamour connected with persons of title in Great Brit- 
ain greater than in France, Italy, or Germany, but the 
great changes that have come since the World War of 
1914-18, the enormous succession levies and the very 
high super-taxes for large incomes, will very likely alter 
the whole situation and indeed has already done so to 
a considerable degree. Many of the nobility have had 
to give up part of their big estates, and it was their 
wealth that undoubtedly gave them their position and 
the ability to exercise hospitality on a large scale and to 
keep up great houses. Perhaps we shall never again 
see the nobility as they were in 1875-76. 

As to the situation in the seventies, Mrs. Humphry 
Ward in her "Writer's Recollections," speaking of her 
uncle, Matthew Arnold, said: "He never denied — none 



TWO VIEWS OF THE ARISTOCRACY 363 

but the foolish ever do deny — the immense oppor- 
tunities and advantages of an aristocratic class wherever 
it exists. He was quite conscious — none but those 
without imagination can fail to be conscious — of the 
glamour of long descent and great affairs." And yet 
that did not prevent Matthew Arnold's having sym- 
pathy for the less privileged classes, and in a poem to 
Arthur Hugh Clough he said: 

"If thoughts, not idle, which before me flow, 
The armies of the homeless and unfed — 
If these are yours, if this is what you are, 
Then I am yours, and what you feel I share." 

In contrast to Matthew Arnold's view of the aristo- 
cracy, which Mrs. Ward shared, is that brought out in 
"The Education of Henry Adams." He says he "met 
in England a thousand people, great and small; jostled 
against every one from royal princes to gin-shop loafers; 
attended endless official functions and private parties; 
visited every part of the United Kingdom ... he knew 
the societies of one or two country houses and acquired 
habits of . . . Sunday afternoon calls; but all this gave 
him nothing to do and was life wasted." And again, "of 
his daily life he had only to reckon so many breakfasts, 
so many dinners, so many receptions, balls, theatres, 
and country parties, so many cards to be left, so many 
Americans to be escorted; all counting for nothing in 
sum, because ... it was mere routine, a single, contin- 
ued, unbroken act which led to nothing and nowhere 
except Portland Place and the grave." 

For myself, I took a position somewhat between the 
two. Without generalizing too much, I know that those 
I met were the most delightful, well-bred, courteous, 
true-hearted, generous people, by and large, that I have 



364 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

ever come in contact with. They were well informed, 
some of them brilliant and delightful talkers. I made 
many sincere friendships and their acquaintance en- 
larged my view of life and its possibilities and was to 
me at once an education and an inspiration. I shall 
never forget these good people. I did not meet the fast 
set or the few nouveaux riches of the aristocracy, and I 
may have been particularly fortunate in the groups that 
I met. Then, too, they were human beings after all, 
and to picture the scene to one's self as an American I 
sometimes thought what the situation would be did 
we in the United States issue patents of nobility. Had 
we done so, General Grant would have been Duke of 
Richmond, with sub-title of Marquis of Vicksburg and 
Earl Donelson; General Sherman would have been, 
let us say, the Marquis of Atlanta; Chief Justice Mar- 
shall would have been made an earl, and Horace Gray 
and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Massachusetts represen- 
tatives on the United States Supreme Court, would have 
been made barons or at least baronets. If Roundell 
Palmer, who conducted the losing side of the Alabama 
arbitration at Geneva, Switzerland, was made a baron 
with title of Lord Selborne, surely William M. Evarts, 
the chief counsel for the American or winning side, 
would have been made the Viscount or the Earl of 
Windsor, Vermont, and so on. 

But to come back to my experience, it was the human 
side of these delightful people that interested and in- 
structed me, and I never shall forget their hospitality. 
Let me give a little example in addition to those already 
related. I received a letter from Mr. Mark J. Stuart, 
an eminent member of the House of Commons, to 
whom I had no letter of introduction and whom I had 
not even met, saying that he had heard from our mu- 



ENGLAND STILL HOSPITABLE 365 

tual friend, Mr. Robert Ferguson, M.P., that I was in 
London, only to remain a few days longer, and would I 
lunch with him at his house the next Saturday, saying 
that when in the United States he had spent a pleasant 
afternoon with my father. That Saturday was engaged 
and a day or two afterwards I left for the Continent. 

Perhaps I made a mistake in not staying on in Lon- 
don longer to see more of old friends and make new ones, 
but I felt, whether rightly or wrongly, that for my edu- 
cation and for increasing my interest in history I ought 
to visit the important parts of western Europe, which 
I had not seen, before returning to America in Septem- 
ber, a thing I had to do in order to complete my studies 
at the law school. 

Among the various changes and chances in our hu- 
man life it has been my misfortune not to have kept 
up friendships with any but a few of my English ac- 
quaintances. It was not their fault as is clearly shown 
by their quick response whenever they were given a 
chance to show us hospitality. It was delightful to find 
how they welcomed my sons and friends, and when in 
England in 1920 not only did I see or hear from all those 
then living of my old friends, but what showed the 
traditions of hospitality most remarkably was to see 
how the second generation carried it on. I received 
kind notes from several of them and made some week- 
end visits and had other invitations I could not ac- 
cept. President Hayes offered me, through William 
M. Evarts, the Secretary of State, the position of 
Chief Secretary of Legation at either Paris or London 
as I might choose, a year after my return to America. 
Had I accepted the offer and chosen London, I should 
have had the best opportunity possible for seeing again 
my old friends, but the diplomatic service was not then 



366 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

a career. A change of administration, even with no 
change of party, meant a change of all diplomatic offi- 
cers. It was not till some years later, in 1883, that Mr. 
Henry White began his long and honorable diplomatic 
career, and even that was broken by a gap of four years 
during Cleveland's second administration. 

Any good I might do for Uncle Sam on account of 
my knowledge of London ways would have been only 
temporary. Therefore, on the advice of my father and 
of Mr. Longfellow, who was about to be my father-in- 
law, I declined the offer. 

Notwithstanding the regret I have in not seeing 
them again, the memories of those golden days of 
friendships abroad have remained in the stronghold of 
my heart and have been an inspiration in all the work 
for public good I have ever taken a hand in. 

What is the explanation of the wonderful English 
hospitality? The hospitality is not vague and general, 
expressing itself to one and all, but is confined to those 
who are properly introduced or well known. Beside 
the wealth, the great estates, the large establishments, 
the hunting, fishing, cricket grounds, lawn tennis and 
the stables, which make it easy to entertain guests, is the 
fact that the country life without guests would in many 
cases be lonely. But, in addition, the English people 
seem educated to entertain, and I believe that education 
comes from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
Whether by design or accident, the students do not 
breakfast in hall, but in their own rooms, and as they do 
not chum together in the English universities, they 
naturally fall into the habit of asking friends in; so a 
student — or one who like myself was staying in col- 
lege — receives a card, or a short note, or just a verbal 
invitation to breakfast at eight-forty -five or nine o'clock 



A SOURCE OF ENGLISH HOSPITALITY S67 

at some one's room in such and such a college, to meet, 
let us say, the president of the Oxford Union, or the 
captain of a boat club, a celebrated cricket player, or a 
high honor man. 

The scouts bring in from the buttery breakfasts of 
one, two, or three courses, usually one, and place them 
on trestles composed of tongs, shovel, and poker in 
front of the fire, where it may keep warm till the guests 
arrive. Indeed, it is rather an exception for a man to 
breakfast alone. Freshmen even are invited to break- 
fast with upper classmen. Besides the breakfasts in each 
other's rooms there is another custom which has in- 
duced hospitality among the educated English, and that 
is of the wines or desserts after dinner. The dinner in 
hall is rather meagre and this meagreness is made up 
by delicacies and wines served in the college rooms, to 
which they invite friends. 

In America our students either dine in large halls at 
the same table with the same men for substantially the 
whole of the year, or form small and exclusive clubs 
where they take all meals with the same group day 
after day, and there is no easy hospitality or interchange 
of companionship at meals as in England. 

With all the other inducements to hospitality in 
Great Britain I think the greatest factor is this univer- 
sity education in comradeship and conviviality. 

Hospitality is not confined to the B.A.'s and M.A.'s 
of Oxford and Cambridge. It is a human instinct, 
as testify the earliest literatures sacred and profane. 
Chaucer, before modern Oxford could have blossomed 
out, has his hospitable Franklyn, the "newe" St. 
Julian. Shakespeare was not at the universities nor 
was the banished Duke in "As You Like It," but how 
sweet the greeting to Orlando, " Sit down and feed and 



368 HOSPITABLE ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTIES 

welcome to our table," though the young hero had just 
tried to seize the food by force, and Orlando replies: 

"Speak you so gently? Pardon me I pray you 



If ever you have looked on better days; 

Let gentleness my strong enforcement be: 

In the which hope, I blush, and hide my sword." 

And then the Duke replies : 

"True is it that we have seen better days, 
And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church, 
And sat at good men's feasts, and wiped our eyes 
Of drops that sacred pity hath engender'd: 
And therefore sit you down in gentleness, 
And take upon command what help we have, 
That to your wanting may be minister'd." 

And then you remember how Orlando would partake of 
nothing till he had hospitably fetched his old compan- 
ion Adam to the feast. 

Yes, hospitality is almost universal, but is it ever 
so pervading, so easy, so cultivated and trained as 
among those who have spent their golden youth at the 
universities of old England? 



THE END 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abbott, Mrs.; mother of Lord Tenter- 
den, 157, 160. 

Acropolis of Athens, by moonlight, 
210-14. 

Acting, French, 159, 177, 179. 

Adams, Charles Francis, 37; as a fisher- 
man, 111; as Minister to England in 
the Civil War, 126, 358. 

Adams, F. Ottiwell, 157, 160. 

Adams, Henry, his views of the English 
aristocracy, 363. 

^Egean, the, 220-22. 

^Etna, Mt., 203. 

Agassiz, Louis, 184. 

Agricultural Holdings Bill, in Parlia- 
ment, 11, 12, 17, 32. 

Alabama Claims, and Lord Tenterden, 
18, 132, 138; and Lord Cockburn, 132- 
34, 323, 331, 332; and Sir Stafford 
Northcote, 337; and Shaw-Lefevre, 
350. 

Albani, 300, 302, 342. 

Alexandra, Princess, of Wales, 33. 

Alexandria to Cairo, the journey, 223. 

All Saints' Day at Paris, 170. 

Althorp House, visit to, 69-81. 

Amberley, Lord, 37, 40; death, 220, 329. 

American conditions misunderstood by 
Professor Danna, 249, 250. 

American politics, 299, 334, 360, 361. 

Americans in Paris, 183. 

Amory, Jonathan, 302. 

Ancient history, value of, 226. 

Andrew, John F., 25. 

Appleton, Nathan, 9. 

Appleton, "Uncle Tom," 5, 6. 

Arab, an athletic, 227; as host, 235, 236. 

Arabic language, the, 225. 

Arbuthnot, Mr., 20. 

Archbishop of Paris, the, 192. 

Argyll, Duke of, visit to his castle, 103- 
20; reception of, 338, 339. 

Argyll, Duchess of, 103, 111, 112, 120, 
328. 

Argyll, Lord Archibald, 109, 112. 

Argyll, Lady Elizabeth, 105, 106. 

Aristocracy, the English, 362-64. See 
Nobility. 

Arnold, Edwin, 317. 

Arnold, Matthew, son of, 268; on the 
English classes, 362, 363. 

Arnold, Richard P., 273, 276. 



Ashburton, Lady, 113, 114. 

Ashbury, Mr., 237. 

Ashley, Lady Edith, 112, 115. 

Ashmolean Museum, the, 280. 

Assembly, the French, Monsieur Lau- 
gel's views on, 179; a meeting of, 
185-91. 

Assemblies, after-dinner, 21. 

Athens, the romance of, 204, 205; the 
Theatre of Dionysus, 205, 206; Christ- 
mas services at, 206 ; a funeral at, 207 ; 
costumes in, 208; the Acropolis by 
moonlight, 210-14; Royal Ball at, 
214-16. 

Austin, Alfred, 87. 

Bailey, Mr., of "Lee Abbey," 136. 

Balfour, A.J., 290. 

Ball, Royal, at Athens, 214-16. 

Balliol College, 264, 265. 

Balliol eight wine, the, 280-82. 

Balls, matrons at, 335. 

Baring, Mary Florence, 114. 

Barnard, C. Inman, 226, 232. 

Batiste, Monsieur E., organist, 182. 

Bedrashen, 229. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 22, 23. 

Behera, the, steamer, 220-23. 

Belknap, W. W., 245. 

Benjamin, Judah P., 322, 323, 326. 

Benvenue, 100, 101. 

Berlin, 352, 353. 

Bernard, Mountague, 341. 

Bernhardt, Sarah, 192. 

Binney, Horace, Jr., 311. 

Birmingham, 65-68. 

Bismarck, Otto v., 161. 

Blackmore, R. D., his " Lorna Doone," 

139. 
Bluntschli, 322. 

Bodleian Library, the, 277, 278. 
Brackett, Walter, American sportsman 

and painter, 110. 
Bradford, William, 284, 285, 350. 
"Britannia," as name for England, 59. 
Brohan, Madame, French actress, 191. 
Brougham, Lord, 51. 
Brownson, Mr., 334. 
Bruce, Lord Charles, 6, 32, 43, 70-76. 
Bruce, Lady Charles, 71. 
Bryant, W. C, 337, 338. 
Bryce, James, 348. 



372 



INDEX 



Buckstone, benefit of, 306, 307. 
Buffet, Monsieur, French Premier, 189, 

190. 
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 314-16, 344. 
Burke, Edmund, 54. 
Burnett, Waldo, 271. 
Burrows, Professor, of All Souls, 263, 

267, 268. 
Burrows, Mrs., 263, 267. 
Burrows, Miss, 263. 
Burrows, F. R., 263, 265, 266, 270, 271. 

Cabmen, London, 301, 308. 

Cairo, from Alexandria to, the journey, 
223; soldiers' boys' school at, 225; 
Volunteer Corps at, 225. 

Calvo y Capdevila, Carlos, 198. 

Cambridge (England), 283-93. 

Campbell, Lord Colin, 4, 5, 49, 50, 114. 

Cardwell, Lord, 50, 51, 53. 

Cardwell, Lady, 50, 52. 

Cargin, I., French violinist, 182. 

Carlton Club, the, 37. 

Cavendish, Lord Edward, 40, 105, 
108-12. 

Cavendish, Lady Edward, 40, 105. 

Cavendish, Lord Frederick, 28; appear- 
ance and manner, 4; his public serv- 
ices, 11; takes Dana to the House of 
Commons, 11, 13; Dana at dinner of, 
40. 

Cavendish, Lady Frederick, dinners of, 
4, 19, 28, 40; appearance, 11; Dana 
calls on, 42. 

Chabrol, Vicomte de, 184, 196, 197. 

Chapin, Horace D., 42. 

Chapuy, Madame, actress, 181. 

Chatsworth, country seat of Duke of 
Devonshire, 57. 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 367. 

Chitty, Mr., 304. 

Christmas services in Russian church at 
Athens, 206. 

Claytons', the, 330. 

Clifden, Lady, 6, 7, 71, 77-81. 

Clifden, Viscount, 77. 

Clubs, English, 13, 18, 19, 36, 37, 46, 
333. 

Cockburn, Lord, and the Alabama 
Claims, 132-34, 323, 331; and the 
Strathclyde case, 321-23; and 
"Wheaton," 322; and Bluntschli, 
322; and American courts, 332. 

Coffee houses, 93. 

Coleridge, Lord, 10, 309; visited by 
Dana, 121-34; on Lord Cockburn, 
132-34, 323, 331; Dana dines with, 
310; his views on the House of Lords, 
311; and the Speaker of the House of 



Commons, 311, 312; on the Duke of 
Wellington and dueling, 312; and 
Goethe's name, 313; as a classical 
scholar, 313, 314; breakfast with, 317; 
as Chief Justice, 318, 319; other 
breakfasts with, 320, 331; morning 
prayers by, 320; and vivisection, 320; 
further invitations of, 342. 

Coleridge, Lady, 121, 127. 

Coleridge, Bernard, 127, 130, 131, 321. 

Coleridge, Edward, 124, 127. 

Coleridge, Mrs. Edward, 124, 127. 

Coleridge, Sir John Taylor, 131, 310. 

Coleridge, Mildred, 124. 

Coleridge, Stephen, 127. 

Coleridge, Miss, sister of Lord Coleridge, 
131. 

Collier, Sir Robert, 346, 347. 

Colossal statue, Egyptian, 229. 

Colosseum, the, 240. 

" Columbia," as name for United States, 
59. 

Comeclie Francaise. See Theatre Fran- 
cais. 

Commons, the Speaker of the House of, 
311, 312. 

Commune, the, 179, 180. 

Concrete cottages, 95. 

Constantine, Basilica of, 240. 

Constitution of the United States, 
Dana explains, 44, 45, 54; on amend- 
ing, 343, 344. 

Convicts, discharged, employment of, 
92, 93. 

Convocation, 273, 274. 

Cornice Road, the, 200, 201. 

Cornish, Rev. George Kestell, poem by, 
129. 

Cosmopolitan Club, the, 46, 329. 

County judges, 72, 73. 

Courts, American, and English judges, 
332, 333. 

Cowen, Mr., 326. 

Cowley Fathers, the, 269, 270. 

Cranleigh, seat of the Rowcliffes, 351. 

Cricket, 338, 339. 

Croisette, actress, 159. 

Cross, Mr., 217. 

Cunard Line, the, 26, 27. 

Cushing, Caleb, 133, 331. 

Dalkeith, Lord, 44. 
Dalton, Colonel, 241. I 
Dana, Charles A., 174. 
Dana, Edmund, 49. 
Dana, Francis, 49, 54. 
Dana, Paul, 174. 

Dana, Richard Henry, his "Two Years 
Before the Mast," 30, 48; rejection 



INDEX 



373 



by Senate Committee as Minister to 
Great Britain, 245, 246, 310, 314, 
329, 341; his notes to Wheaton's 
International Law, 247, 248, 322, 
341, 346, 357; author questioned con- 
cerning, in English railway carriage, 
255; as a raconteur, 329. 
Dana, Richard Henry (son of Richard 
Henry), urged to stay in England, 45; 
mentioned in Dundee "Advertiser," 
94; his plan for raising sunken ship, 
116, 117; elected member of the Re- 
form Club, 328 ; offered post as Chief 
Secretary of Legation at Paris or 
London, 365, 366. 
Dana family, the, 250, 251. 
Danna, Professor, 247-51. 
Danna, Mrs., 251. 
D'Arcy, Rev. G. B., 208. 
Davis, Bancroft, 353. 
De Bornier, Henri, 177. 
Deer-hunting, 139. 
Deldevez, Monsieur E., 182. 
Derby, Lord, 231. 
Derby race, the, 294-99. 
Devonshire Club, the, 36, 44. 
Dexter, Arthur, 246. 
D'Hermignys', the, 356. 
Dicey, Edward, 174, 329, 342. 
Dicey, Mrs. Edward, 174, 196. 
Dickinson, G. Lowes, his "A Modern 

Symposium," 16. 
Dinners, in England, 21, 150 ; precedence 

at, 362. 
Disraeli, Benjamin D., neutral in our 
Civil War, 10; in the House, 12; 
appearance, 15; his humor, 46, 47; 
incidents concerning his veracity, 
60-62; speech of, 66;. and the Suez 
Canal, 231; and the Speaker of the 
House, 312; gives invitation to meet 
Prince of Wales, 336. 
Domestic system, the English, 75. 
Donkey-boy who spoke English, 228. 
Donkeys on shipboard, 221. 
"Don Juan," 194. 
Dorr, Mrs., 241. 
Drummond, Henry, 323. 
"Due Job," play by Laya, 193. 
Dueling, 312. 

Duff, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, 25, 26. 
Dundee, reform school at, 90, 91; linen 
works at, 91, 92; library in Albert 
Institute at, 92; convict system at, 
92, 93; coffee houses at, 93; flower 
show at, 96. 
Dyer, Louis, 264, 267, 271 -76. 

Ebre, the, steamer, 237. 



Edinburgh, picturesqueness of, 83. 

Egypt, 223-36. 

Egyptian women, 229. 

Egyptians, the, 224. 

Eleusis, Bay of, 217. 

Ellen's Isle, 100, 102. 

Elliot, Admiral, 37. 

Elliot, Sir Charles Gilbert, 37. 

Elliot, Lady Harriet Emily, 37-39. 

England, feeling in, toward America, 
125-27. : .< 

English dress, 359. 

English hospitality, 151, 152, 364-66; the 
source of, 366-68. 

English judges, their ignorance in re- 
gard to American courts, 332, 333. 

English music, 309. 

English politics, ladies in, 319. 

English pronunciation, 25, 112, 119. 

English voices, 77. 

English words and expressions, 72, 77. 

Episcopal Church of America at Rome, 
244, 245. 

Errol, 96. 

Eton College, 302-05. 

Eversley, Lord. See Shaw-Lefevre. 

Exeter, cathedral, 135. 

Exmoor, 139. 

Favart, Mademoiselle, actress, 177. 

Febvre, French actor, 177. 

Felton, Tom, 56. 

Ferguson, Robert, 2, 17, 43, 365; Dana 

lunches with, 3; Dana at Reform 

Club with, 36. 
Ferguson, Mr., 333. 
Fishing, 140-43. 

Fishmongers' Hall, dinner at, 330. 
Fortescue, Lady Camilla, 310. 
Fortescue, Dudley, 306, 309, 310. 
Fouret, Rene, 162, 163. 
Fowler, Mrs., 333. 
Franceschi, Signor, singer, 252. 
Franco-Prussian War, 174. 
French, the, character of, 171. 
French Academy, the, opening of, 167, 

168; prizes awarded before, 170; a 

meeting of, 176, 177. 
French court, a, 255. 
French National Library, the, 252-54. 
French politics, 171, 172. 
French senate, composition of, 162. 

Gambetta, speech by, 188, 189. 

Garrick Club, the, 18, 19. 

Geneva, 356. 

George, King of Greece, 208, 214-17. 

Ghost story, a, 123. 

Gibbons, Professor, 286. 



374 



INDEX 



Girton, 285. 

Gizeh, 228, 229. 

Glaciers, 353-56. 

Gladstone, W. E., rather Southern in 
his feelings during our Civil War, 10; 
sincere in his thoughts, 15; change in 
feeling toward, 16; his assumption of 
being morally right, 16, 17; Dana at 
family party at house of, 21-23; drew 
information from others, 24; his voice 
and manner of speaking, 24; his ap- 
pearance, 25; his pronunciation, 25; 
in the House, 31; at dinner and thea- 
tre party, 40, 41; autograph letter of, 
49; removes to Harley Street, 308; 
questions Dana on Grecian condi- 
tions, 339, 340; calls at Dana's lodg- 
ings, 348. 

Gladstone, Mrs. W. E., 23, 24, 40. 

Gladstone, William H., 22, 40. 

Gladstone, Miss, 274. 

Glasgow, 121. 

Glazebrook, jumper, 280. 

Glenthorne, seat of Mr. Halliday, 139. 

Goldie, Miss, 84, 87. 

Goodwin, Professor W. W., 206. 

Got, French actor, 191, 193. 

Grain, unloading, 199, 200. 

Grant, President, 209, 246. 

Greece, landing at Pirseus, 204; Athens, 
204, 205; contrast between the extent 
and the influence of, 218; was unable 
in antiquity to form a united country, 
219; Gladstone questions Dana on, 
339, 340. 

Greek funeral, a, 207. 

Greeks, the, character of, 203, 220. 

Greenwood, Frederick, editor of "Pall 
Mall Gazette," 231. 

"Greville Papers," the, 51. 

Gurney, Professor, 300, 301, 305, 315. 

Gurney, Mrs., 315. 

Gurney, Mrs. Russell, 326; dinner with, 
342-44. 

Gurney, Mr., nephew of Russell Gur- 
ney, 344, 345. 

Guy's Cave, 63. 

Haggard, Rev. C, 237. 

Hail, Major, officer in the Confederate 

Army, 225. 
Halliday, Mr., 139. 
Hamilton, Lord George, quoted on 

Mrs. Hamilton, 24 ; in politics, 44. 
Hammond, Miss (afterwards Mrs. Dr. 

William Appleton), 201, 202. 
Haoverman, Baron, 197, 238. 
Harcourt, Sir William Vernon, 48; 

Dana goes to House at invitation of, 



28; Dana dines with, 31; his career; 

31 ; and the Agricultural Holdings Bill, 

32; dinner to Dana given by, 44-46; 

on the veracity of Disraeli, 60, 61; 

his standing, 175; character of, 175, 

176; calls at Dana's lodgings, 348. 
Harrison, Charles, 351, 352, 356. 
Hartington, Marquis of, 57; speech of, 

66. 
Harvard and Oxford, race of 1869, 267, 

358, 359. 
Harvard Dining-Hall Association, 89. 
Haweis, Rev. Hugh Reginald, 305, 325. 
Healey, Mr., 183, 184, 192. 
Hearse, scene with, 239, 240. 
Heathcote, Sir William, visited by 

Dana, 146-50, at Mentone, 201; 

picture of, 263. 
Heathcote, Lady, 147, 201. 
Heathcote, Rev. Mr., 148, 149. 
Heath's Court, 131. 
Heatly, Miss, 335. 
Henley, boat-races at, 349. 
Herzegovinians, the, 203. 
Highlands of Scotland, the, 100-02. 
Hoffmann, Baroness, 241. 
Honey, George, actor, 41. 
Honiton, 121. 

Horsfall, Mr., 256, 294, 302. 
Hospitality. See English. 
Hottin, Monsieur, singer, 182. 
Houghton, Lord (Richard Monckton 

Milnes), 314-17. 
Hughes, Tom, 19. 
Hursley Park, visited by Dana, 146-50. 

Ilfracombe, 135, 145. 

Inchture, 94. 

Inner Temple, the, 36. 

Institute of France, the, 167-70. 

Insurance, marine, 29. 

Intemperance in English society, 51, 52. 

Inverary, 103. 

Inverary Castle, visit to, 103-20. 

Inversnaid, 102. 

Ireland, condition of, 7. 

Irving, Henry, as Joseph Surface, 307; 

his manner, 314, 330; reading by, 

344. 
Italian Parliament, the, 242, 243. 
Italians, the, 248, 249; taxes of, 176. 

James, Henry, 196. 

Japanese, an English opinion of, 160, 

161; about their civilization, 160, 161. 
Johnston, Sir Harry, has "Gay Dom- 

beys," 13. 
Jonassain, Mademoiselle, actress, 177. 
Jones, Dr., 17, 43. 



INDEX 



375 



Jonson, Ben, 74, 75. 
Jupp, of Magdalen, 270. 

Keble chapel, 277, 279, 280. 

Keble College dormitory, 257, 258. 

Kenilworth, 63. 

Kennaway, Sir John, 13; invitations 
from, 2, 5, 64; dinner with, 19; at 
Carlton Club with, 37 ; breakfast with, 
347; calls on Dana, 348. 

Kennaway, Lady, 20, 43, 347. 

Kew Gardens, 53. 

Kinnaird, Lord, 49; visited by Dana, 
88-96; his philanthropies, 90-93; a 
useful member of the House of Lords, 
97; his family, 98; his collection at the 
Priory, 99. 

Kinnaird, Lady, 88, 96. 

Kinnaird, Arthur, 2, 49. 

Knox, Mr., 181. 

Lanyon, Charles, 324-26, 333, 334. 
Laugel, Monsieur, 174-76, 179, 180, 196. 
Law, one attitude toward, 300. 
Laya, Madame, 164, 166, 181, 182, 254. 
Laya, Mademoiselle, 164, 165, 173. 
Laya, Monsieur, 164, 165, 173, 178, 

191, 197. 
Laya, Jean Louis, 193. 
Layas', the, 169, 171, 174, 180, 193, 

251, 252. 
Leaf, Herbert, 283, 284. 
"Lee Abbey," 136. 
Leemouth, 144. 
Lehmann, R. C, 289. 
"Leyces Ter" Hospital, Warwick, 65. 
Library, at Althorp House, 73-75; at 

Milan, 74. 
Lincoln's Inn, 6. 
Littlejohn, Bishop, 244. 
Lloyd, Mr., of the Priory at Warwick, 64. 
Loch Achray, 100. 
Loch Katrine, 100-02. 
Loch Lomond, 102. 
Lockhart, grandnephew of Walter Scott, 

265. 
Lombard, Howard, 276. 
London, first visit to, 1-62; return to, 

256; revisited, 294-352. 
London post-office, efficiency of, 60. 
London Rowing Club, 358. 
Londonderry, Lord, 7. 
Lords, the House of, Lord Coleridge's 

views on, 311. 
Lords, a cricket match at, 338, 339. 
Lome, Marquis of, 105-19. 
Louise, Princess, 104-19. 
"Louisiana Lowlands," 281, 289. 
Lowell, James Russell, 106. 



Loyd, Lewis, 350, 351. 
Loyd, Mrs , 350, 351. 
Lushington, Judge, 324, 325, 357. 
Lynmouth, 135-45. 
Lynton, 136. 
Lyttelton, Alfred, 5. 
Lyttelton, Lord, 268. 
Lyttelton, Lady, 40. 

Macbeth, site of his castle, 95. 

Mackarness, Alethea, 127. 

Mackarness, John Fielder, Bishop of 
Oxford, 127, 131. 

Mackarness, the Misses, daughters of 
the Bishop of Oxford, 131. 

Mackintosh, Mr., son of Sir James, 8, 9. 

Mackintosh, Mrs. Robert, 5, 19. 

MacMahon, Madame General, 182. 

Magdalen College, 270, 271. 

Mann, James Bradford, 290, 291. 

Marmier, Xavier, at home, 154, 155, 
191; on the street, 156, 195; courtesies 
of, to Dana, 157, 164-68, 170, 181, 
184, 194, 195; presents his books to 
Dana, 159, 178, 195. 

Marseilles, 199, 200. 

Marsh, George P., American Minister 
at Rome, 239, 244-47. 

Marsh, Mrs. G. P., 243, 244. 

Marshall, Professor A., 285. 

Mass, at St. Roch, 170; at St. Eustache, 
182. 

Mayne, his "Ancient Law," 44, 86. 

McMillan, Mr., 272. 

Mellor, Francis H., 284, 286. 

Mentone, 201. 

Messina, 202. 

Milan, Library at, 74. 

Mildmay, Archdeacon, 147, 149. 

Millais, Sir John E., 44, 56. 

Milnes, Richard Monckton. See Hough- 
ton, Lord. 

Mitchell, Cambridge oarsman, 287. 

Mitrahenny, 229. 

Mohl, Madame, 155-59, 195, 196. 

Mohl, Monsieur, 155, 156. 

Monaco, 201, 202. 

Moncur Castle, 98. 

Mont Blanc, climbing, 354-56. 

Monte Carlo, 201, 202. 

Montucci, Monsieur, 169. 

Moody and Sankey, views on, 59. 

Morality, of different nations, 163, 164. 

Moss, Edward, 268, 271. 

Munich, 353. 

Mylne, Bishop, 276, 277, 279. 

Naples, 237-39. 
Napoleon, Prince, 172. 



376 



INDEX 



"Nasty," English use of, 20. 

Neapolitan nobility, the, 238. 

Neilson, Miss, 307. 

Nile, the, 223. 

Nobility, English, method of addressing, 
97; lack of scientific and historical 
knowledge among, 97, 98; differing 
views of, 362-64. 

North Devonshire, 136-45. 

Northampton, 68. 

Northcote, Sir Stafford, 337. 

Ogilvy, Angus, 94, 95. 

Ogilvy, Mr., 90, 96. 

Olga, Queen of Greece, 215, 216. 

Opera at Paris, 160, 169, 194. 

Opera Comique, 181. 

Orange, 199. 

Ottery St. Mary, 131. 

Owen, Professor Richard, 336. 

Oxford, arrival at, 257; appearance of 
students, 257; river barges, 258; 
rowing, 259-61, 272, 275; the Union, 
260-63; glimpses of life at, 263-80; 
the Cowley Fathers, 269, 270; the 
Balliol eight wine, 280-82; examina- 
tions, 282; the charm of, 283. 

Paget, Sir Augustus, 239, 241, 242. 

Paget, Lady, 241, 244, 246. 

Paintings, at Althorp House, 81; at 

Rossie. Priory, 89, 99. 
Palais de l'lndustrie, 181. 
Palermo, 202. 
Palmer, Sir Roundell. See Lord Sel- 

borne. 
Palmer, Lady, 340. 
Palmer, Professor, of Oxford, 274. 
Paris, first visit to, 153-98; second visit 

to, 251-54. 
Paris Salon, 254. 
Parker, Charles P., 263, 269, 270. 
Parker, Edmund M., 257, 271. 
Parker, Henry Tuke, 11. 
Parker, Mrs., 19. 
Parliament, the English, debates in, 

11-13, 17; procedure in, 14, 15, 32, 34, 

35; a violent scene in, 28-31. 
Parthia, the, 26, 27. 
Peabody, Francis, 284, 288. 
Peel, Sir Robert, and Disraeli, 61, 62. 
Pembroke Lodge, visits to, 34, 37-40, 

49-56, 328, 336, 338, 357. 
Pen works, in Birmingham, 68. 
Penrose, J. P., 289. 

Peterboro, cathedral, 82; Bishop of, 245. 
Perusse, Vicomte de, 173, 181, 192. 
Perusse, Vicomtesse de, 166, 173, 181, 

192, 197. 



Phillimore, Sir Robert, 19, 36, 326, 347; 
dinner with, 2-4; in the Strathclyde 
case, 321, 322. 

Physicians, French and American, 173. 

Piper, William T., 288. 

Playfair, Lyon, 348. 

Plimsoll, Mr., and the Merchants' Ship- 
ping Bill, 28-30, 46-49, 88. 

Pollock, Chief Baron, 136, 314. 

Pollock, Sir Frederick, 48, 314. 

Pollock, Sir J. Frederick, 35. 

Pollock, Dr. Julius, 138, 314. 

Pollock, Mrs. Julius, 142-44, 305. 

Pollock, Sir William Frederick, 35, 36, 48. 

Pollock, Lady, 35, 48, 56, 314. 

Pollock, Mr. and Mrs., relatives of Sir 
Frederick, 136. 

Portland, Lady, 320. 

Potsdam, 353. 

Praslin, Due de, 197. 

"Previous question," the, 15. 

Price, Bonamy, 340; anecdote about, 
343; his manner, 343, 344. 

Priory, the, at Warwick, 64. 

Proust, Monsieur, singer, 182. 

Pyramids, the, 226-29, 232-36. 

Quin, Lady Edith, 338. 
Quincy, Dr. Henry P., 11. 
Quintilian, 313, 314. 

Railroads, English and American, 135. 
Rawlins, Mr., barrister, 286, 300; in 

Lincoln's Inn with, 6 ; dinner with, 13, 

14. 
Rawlins, Mr., master at Eton, 303. 
Read, General, United States Minister 

to Athens. 207, 209, 210. 
Read, Mrs., 209, 210, 220. 
Reform Club, the, 36, 328, 333. 
Reform school at Dundee, 90, 91. 
Reichstag, the, 353. 
Reszke, Madame de, 169. 
Rhodes, 221. 

Rhone Glacier, the, 353, 354. 
Ribblesdale, Lady, 54. 
Richmond church, 53. 
Richmond Park, 39. 
Rifle contests at Wimbledon, 33. 
Robinson, Douglas, 267, 273. 
Robsart, Amy, 63, 65. 
Roman law, Lord Young's opinion of, 

85, 86. 
Rome, 239-46. 
Romilly, Lord, 337. 
Rosalie, Monsieur, 180. 
Rossie Priory, Lord Kinnaird's seat, 88- 

96; the house, 98; the art collection 

at, 99. 



INDEX 



377 



Rouen, 255. 

Rowcliffe, E. L., 145, 305; Queen's 
Councilor, 138; illness of, 138, 139; 
a week end with, 351, 352. 

Rowcliffe, Mrs., 138, 139, 145, 305; a 
drive with, 306; dinner with, 324. 

Rowe, Mrs., 140. 

Rowing, at Oxford, 259-61, 272, 275; 
at Cambridge, 288, 291. 

Royal Art Exhibition, 3, 56. 

Royal Titles Bill, the, 299. 

Russell, Lord John, career, 34, 39, 40, 
50 ; his manner, 34 ; conversations with, 
34; his views on men and things, 37, 
38, 54, 55; anecdote about his over- 
coat, 43; on William IV, 51; on in- 
temperance in London society in his 
younger days, 51, 52; and the Trent 
Affair, 57, 58; on Walter Scott, 338; 
final visit to, 357, 358. 

Russell, Lady, 114; at Pembroke Lodge, 
38-40, 54, 328, 329, 357; on the names 
of England and the United States, 
59; and Bryant, 337; on natural 
manners, 338. 

Russell, Lady Agatha, 38, 39, 50. 

Russell, Rollo, 38, 49, 50. 

Russell, William Henry, 278. 

Rutson, Albert, 300. 

Ryland Public Library, Manchester, 
England, 74. 

St. Cyr, 169. 

St. Eustache, mass in, 182. 

St. Philippe, sermon in, 192. 

St. Roch, mass at, 170. 

Sakkarah, 228. 

Salmon fishing, 110. 

Salomon, French singer, 169. 

Savile Club, the, 13, 14. 

Schenck, General C. R., United States 

Minister to England, 60. 
Sclopis, Count, 247-49. 
"Scrutin d' arrondissement" and "scru- 

tin de liste," 179, 186-91. 
Secession, the right of, 45, 226. 
Selborne, Lord, 19, 274; his title, 18; 

conversations with, 50-53. 
Selborne, Lady, 50. 
Senate, the French, 179. 
Shaftesbury, Earl, 112, 113, 118, 119. 
Shakespeare, William, bust of, 19; and 

Ben Jonson, 74, 75; quoted, 367, 368. 
Shaw-Lefevre, George John (Lord Ev- 

ersley), 350, 351. 
Sherman, John, 38. 
"Shipping articles," 29. 
Shipping Bill, the, Mr. Plimsoll and, 

28-30. 



Shoe pegs, the manufacture of, 67. 
Sicily, 202, 203. 
Sid River, the, 129. 
Sidgwick, Professor Henry, 290. 
Sidmouth, 128. 

Silverknowe, Lord Young's cottage, 85. 
Simeto, the, steamer, 202. 
Smalley, George W., 19; editorial cor- 
respondent of the New York "Trib- 
une," 35; conversation with, 36; on 
American politics, 309; dinner with, 
334. 
Smalley, Mrs., 19. 
Smith, Rev. Samuel F., 26. 
Smyth, Piazzi, 228. 
Soldiers' boys' school at Cairo, 225. 
Spencer, Lord, personal appearance, 6, 
7; his career, 7; courtesy of, 10; his 
dignity and tact, 33; at the theatre, 
41; visit to his country house, Al- 
thorp House, 69-81; as county judge, 
72, 73 ; and Lady Spencer, 79 : invites 
Dana to luncheon, 348. 
Spencer, Lady, attractiveness of, 7, 8; 
at lawn tennis, 75; and her boudoir, 
78, 79; and Lord Spencer, 79; 
plays at "go bang," 79, 80; death, 79. 
Spencer, Herbert, 38. 
Spencer House, 6, 8-10, 32, 43. 
Sphinx, the, 234. 
Spiritualism, 344, 345. 
Stanley, Dean, 314-16, 326, 327. 
Stanley, Lady Augusta, 326. 
Stanton, General, British Consul-Gen- 

eral at Cairo, 224-26, 230-32. 
Steamships, 26. 
Stevenson, Mr. and Mrs., 232. 
Stone, General Charles Pomeroy, 224. 
Stone, Mrs., 232. 
Story, Edith, 175. 
Story, Judge Joseph, 175, 232. 
Story, Julian, 271. 
Story, Waldo, 264. 
Story, William Wetmore, 174-76. 
Story, Mrs. W. W., 174, 243. 
Strada, Mademoiselle, 171. 
Strada, Marquis, 171. 
Stratford-on-Avon, 64. 
Strathclyde case, the, 321-23. 
Stromboli, 237. 
Stuart, Gertrude, 22. 
Stuart, Mark J., 364. 
Stuart, William, English Minister to 

Greece, 207-10. 
Stuart, Mrs. William, 209, 210. 
Sturgis, Russell, 306-09, 317. 
Suez Canal, purchase of shares of, 231. 
Sullivan, Rev. Mr., headmaster of Win- 
chester School, 208. 



378 



INDEX 



Sultan of Turkey, 305, 306. 

Sunken ships, plan for raising, 116-18. 

Sunset, a Greek, 217, 218. 

Table customs in England, 8, 9. 

Talbot, Dr. and Mrs., 20, 274, 275. 

Taormina, 202, 203. 

Taylorian library and gallery, the, 276. 

Teas, five o'clock afternoon, 150. 

Tennant, Laura, 5. 

Tennyson, Alfred, 17. 

Tenterden, Lord, 18, 42, 132, 306; 
visited by Dana, 136-45; second 
marriage, 138; his views of the death of 
the Sultan of Turkey, 305 ; a day with, 
on the borders of the Thames, 327, 
328; secures invitation to meet Prince 
of Wales, 336. 

Tenterden, Lady, 136, 143, 145. 

Terry, Ellen, 41. 

Terry, Mrs., 243. 

Theatre Francais, the, the acting at, 
159, 177, 179. 

Theatre of Dionysus, Athens, 205, 
206. 

Thebes, the Grecian, 203. 

Thompson, Sir Henry, 345, 348. 

Thornton, Mr., 288. 

Tichborne, Sir Roger Charles, the 
"claimant" of his estate, 59. 

Tinne, J. C., 267, 349. 

Titus, arch of, 240. 

Trent Affair, the, 57-59, 132, 341. 

Tribout, Mademoiselle, 169. 

Trollope, Anthony, 46, 329. 

Trollope, Miss, 241. 

Trossachs, the, 100-02. 

Turin, 247-51. 

Turkey, 203. 

Turkish atrocities, 358. 

University reform, 268. 

"Valued" policies, 29, 30. 

" Vanguard," plan for raising, 116-18. 

Vatican decrees, 23. 

Vaughan, Dr., 36. 

Venus Fly Trap, the, 53. 

Versailles, 185. 

Vesuvius, 237. 

Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, 321. 



Victoria, Lady, 105. 

Victoria, Queen, at the Wimbledon En- 
campment, 33; autograph letter of, 
38; and the German language, 38; 
birthplace, 128; influence on society, 
130; title Empress of India, 299. 

Vivisection, 320. 

Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 276, 362. 

Warwick, 63-65. 

Warwick Castle, 63. 

Warwick, Rev. M., 230. 

Washburne, Elihu Benjamin, 174, 335; 

United States Minister to France, 

153 ; his pronunciation of French, 153, 

154. 
Washington, George, 37, 56; and the 

American flag, 76, 77. 
Washington, Treaty of, 18, 132. 
Waterloo, 352. 
Welles's, London hall, 335. 
Wellington, Duke of, 128, 312. 
Westlake, John, 20, 299. 
Westminster Abbey, 10, 11, 48. 
Whalley, Mr., 12. 
White, Henry, 366. 
Wigglesworth, George, 354. 
Wilde, Mr. and Mrs., 143. 
William IV., 51. 

"William Tell," the opera, 169, 170. 
Williams, Dr. Charles H., 42. 
Wilson, President, 334. 
Wilton, Marie, 41. 
Wimbledon Encampment, 32, 33. 
Winchester, hospital and cathedral, 149, 

150. 
Winslow case, the, 346. 
"Woodside," Lord Tenterden's cottage, 

136, 137. 
Wurts, Mr., American Secretary of 

Legation at Rome, 241, 243. 
Wyndham, Hugh, 158, 207, 208. 
Wyndham, Mrs. Hugh, 158, 164, 207, 

208. 

Yonge, Charlotte, "The Heir of Red- 

cliffe," 149. 
York, cathedral, 82. 
Young, Lord, 44, 46; visited by Dana, 

84-87; his opinion of Roman law, 

85, 88; stories of, 86, 87. 



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